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On August 29, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the first meeting of the Advisory Panel on Security and Defense Capabilities at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Prime Minister said in his opening address,
 
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Chairperson Mimura and the rest of the distinguished experts for attending this meeting of the Advisory Panel on Security and Defense Capabilities on such short notice despite your busy schedules.
 
I have been working on reshaping Japan’s security policy ever since I assumed office as Prime Minister. Protecting the lives and peaceful livelihoods of the people is the most important responsibility of the Government. In addition, it is our own continuous efforts that form the backbone of our security policy.
 
The security environment of Japan is becoming severer and increasingly uncertain at a pace far faster than was expected five years ago when the current National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) was formulated. For this reason, we have assessed that it is necessary to once again review the NDPG, which is the guidelines of Japan’s defense.
 
In the review of the NDPG, it is first and foremost essential that we squarely face the realities without looking away from them. Maintaining advantages in new domains such as cyber space and outer space is now a matter of vital importance for the defense of Japan.
 
We are not able to protect Japan from the range of threats if we are thinking only through the conventional lens  of the ground, maritime, and air defense categories. We need to identify an ideal form of defense capabilities that is truly needed to protect Japan, rather than developing them along the current path. To overcome these difficult challenges, we must analyze them from a variety of perspectives and pool know-how and experiences in an array of fields. I ask the experts gathered here today to contribute to discussions at this meeting by fully drawing on your wealth of academic expertise and experiences in each field with a focus on security and defense policy and share your candid views. Thank you for your participation.”