• 
• 

On October 26, 2017, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the second meeting in FY2017 of the Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments at the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the meeting, discussion took place on the budget requests for FY2018 as well as the promotion of regional revitalization and decentralization reform.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“I would like to express my gratitude to the representatives of the six regional organizations for attending this meeting despite your busy schedules. This is an important venue to hear your valuable opinions with regard to key policy issues related to regions.

During the recent general election campaign, I advocated that we need to bring about revolutions in productivity and in developing human resources, in order to continue launching the arrows of Abenomics reform and further enrich the lives of the people in the face of the rapidly declining birthrate and aging population. I was able to receive strong support from the people.

To crystallize the policies for these two pillars, we will create a new policy package before the end of this year. I hope to take full advantage of outstanding talented people and the capabilities of the regions with wisdom in order to overcome the barriers of the declining birthrate and aging population.

As for regional revitalization, this fiscal year marks the mid-way point of the comprehensive strategy for overcoming population decline and vitalizing local economy. Going forward the strategy will be expected to deliver results.

We will powerfully advance “local Abenomics” and actively implement initiatives based on the views exchanged to date, including promotion of schooling and employment of young people in regions.

Additionally, we will exert our utmost efforts and proactively support the endeavors towards regional revitalization in the areas of information, human resources, and finance, so that people in regions can experience the positive cycle of growth and distribution.

In regard to decentralization reform, we will steadily make progress with decentralization reform for the regions by the regions using the method of soliciting proposals, and we will take steps to ensure that the outcomes of reform can be felt at the level of the people.

Japan will not have vitality unless its regions have vitality. There is no future for Japan unless we pave the way for the future of the regions. The Abe Cabinet will continue to follow this basic stance in advancing policies while listening carefully to the opinions provided today.”