[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the ninth meeting in 2017 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.
At the meeting, there was a report on the Plan for Raising Children with Peace of Mind and discussion toward the Basic Policies.
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

"Today we had a discussion on the draft Basic Policies.
I would like this year's Basic Policies to show that, in addition to the implementation of work style reform and the Growth Strategy, increasing the productivity of the economy and society through investments in human resources will be the key to accelerating the positive cycle of growth and distribution, so that we can overcome the declining population, as well as the decreasing birthrate and aging of society, and realize a society in which all citizens are dynamically engaged.

As we undertake reforms, we will aim to achieve a primary surplus by FY2020, as well as a stable reduction in our debt to GDP ratio. To that end, we must steadily advance the three reforms of exiting deflation and achieving economic revitalization, expenditure reform, and revenue reform, under the basic policy that there can be no fiscal soundness without economic revitalization.

I request that Minister Ishihara advance discussions with the ruling parties and extend his utmost efforts to formulate the Basic Policies with a sense of urgency, taking into consideration the discussions up to this point."