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On January 5, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the 2018 New Year Party jointly hosted by the three economic associations held in Tokyo.
 
The Prime Minister said in his address,
 
“I wish you all a very happy New Year. I am deeply pleased to see today’s New Year Party hosted by the three economic associations held with such excitement and grandeur as well as attended by truly so many people.
 
While I normally bring a speech prepared, today I did not bring one with me. Please allow me to speak as I would like to.
 
Today’s party has been a truly lively event, with so many guests attending, including H.E. Mr. William Hagerty, Ambassador of the United States to Japan. It makes me hope that we will have a strong economy once again this year.
 
I saw on the news that 6,000 people were lined up before the opening of a department store in the Kansai area, and that sales of luxury goods were good and overall sales were up 5 percent. At department stores in Tokyo as well, extremely expensive fukubukuros, New Year’s ‘lucky’ bags with items sold at discounted prices, the kind that Chairman Sakakibara of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) might purchase, have sold very well. At these department stores sales were also up more than 5 percent. I believe this is the result of four consecutive years of the highest levels of wage increases since the beginning of this century. There is the saying that the economy is a reflection of people’s sentiment. As this saying goes, people are gradually feeling more upbeat about the economy. At the same time, I also believe that expectations about an even better economy this year also motivated people to go to department stores.
 
Having said that much, you probably are aware of what I am going to say next. In order to ensure the continuation of this positive cycle of the economy, frankly speaking I would like to request a 3 percent increase in wages this year. Since not many of you raised your voices, I take it to mean that there is no opposition to my proposal.
 
On January 2, I played golf with Chairman Sakakibara. I have only played once this year, but I got my best score. Mr. Sakakibara was also on a roll. The balls he hit with his driver flew more than 3% farther than the last time without a doubt. Actually, last year I also had an opportunity to play golf with Chairman Kobayashi of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives as well. Mr. Kobayashi also had power and was on a roll. The two of them use different golf shafts. One set is made by Toray Industries, and the other set is made by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, so there are differences between the two. I will not say which one is better; both are great. I have high hopes that the momentum of these two individuals who have led the global golf shaft market will be directed at increasing wages.
 
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Meiji era. Eiichi Shibusawa, who was active during that era, has been quoted as saying: the moment you are satisfied is the moment that you become weak. I would like to ask you to continue new investments without being satisfied with your record high profits. In preparation for the internet of things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and as Chairman Sakakibara mentioned earlier, Society 5.0, I hope you will aim at making your companies lead the world. Of course, we on our part will not only make such requests. As part of our policy package that we promised following last year’s general election, we will lower the corporate tax burden to 20 percent for those ambitious companies that boldly invest in the future. This was quite a bold decision that we made. Deputy Prime Minister Aso made this decision, with the same resolve as if he was jumping down from the renowned high-rise stage at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, albeit with a parachute of course. I hope that everyone will take advantage of this scheme.
 
Today we are also joined by politicians, including Mr. Noda, Mr. Oguchi, Minister Suzuki, and Minister Kamikawa. Everyone seems refreshed and invigorated. This is probably thanks to the fact that the general election was conducted without incident last year. We achieved a tremendous victory, securing 284 seats. I do believe everyone here supported the ruling parties. Of the three general elections that I have been involved in as President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), we received the largest number of votes in both proportional representation constituencies and single-seat constituencies in this last election. In other words, we now bear a greater responsibility than ever before, and so I intend to exert every effort to fulfill the promises we made during the election campaign one by one.
 
As the market adage goes, ‘the years of the monkey and the rooster are years of upheaval.’ Last year was the year of the rooster, and it was indeed a year of upheaval. However, the adage also states that ‘the year of the dog is a year of laughter.’ I think that more or less was the atmosphere in the markets yesterday. I would like to close my New Year’s remarks by expressing my hope that this coming year will be a wonderful and bright year for everyone here and for Japan, and by pledging to do everything in my power to make sure that it is. Happy New Year.”