• 
• 
• 
• 

 
On November 19, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the 40th meeting of the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, the compilation of the fourth report on regulatory reform promotion was compiled, and a discussion was held on the regulatory reform hotline.
 
After receiving the report from Ms. Hiroko Ota, Chair of the Council, the Prime Minister said,
 
“The Council has compiled the report on the issues that we need to deal with urgently, which have been given due consideration since October. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the members of this Council, particularly Ms. Ota, Chair of the Council, and Mr. Kanemaru, Acting Chair of the Council, for the intensive discussions being carried out.
 
In this report, bold proposals covering a wide range of sectors are made from the perspective of stimulating innovation under the fourth industrial revolution and spreading it across the regions: the full-fledged promotion of online distance learning; initiatives to channel the fruits of growth in the mobile phone market back to citizens; the realization of simple online applications for social insurance procedures and other processes with the aim of reducing the burden on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; and the relaxation of regulations to enable the use of drones and other technology to cope with the labor shortage and improve productivity in the agricultural industry. Regulatory reform is the main engine of growth that will pave the way to a new era. It is not too much to say that this reform is at the core of the Abe Cabinet’s growth strategy.
 
I ask that all members of this Council continue to work tirelessly on the remaining issues, looking ahead to next summer.”