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On December 19, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the Liaison Meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Prime Minister said in his opening address,
 
“The Diet has passed the second supplementary budget for this fiscal year, and engaged in deliberations on the budget for the next fiscal year. It has also started deliberations over the bill for the amendment of the tax system. I thank all the members of the ruling parties for the hard work you have put in so far. The most important economic measure is to pass the budget for the next fiscal year as early as possible. The Government will continue to put serious effort with a sense of urgency toward passing this budget.  I would like to ask the ruling parties for your cooperation.
 
The death of a 10-year-old girl from child abuse in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, is truly painful and tragic, and should never have happened. It is the responsibility of all adults to protect the lives of children. We cannot stop regretting that the adults around Mia, including the schools, boards of education, and child guidance centers, who should act as a fortresses to protect children, were not able to find and listen to her heart-wrenching for help and save her life. I conveyed a council of the relevant ministers on February 8 and I instructed them to take immediate actions to significantly strengthen the child guidance service system. These measures include completing within one month the emergency verification of the safety of children for all child abuse cases, and increasing the number of child welfare officers by 1,000 all at once in next fiscal year  from the current 3,000 officers, aiming at reaching 5,000 by FY2022. In addition, we are now preparing for  the revision of the Child Welfare Act. We would like to ask for your cooperation to make these measures effective by incorporating views of the ruling parties.   We will implement these measures with a sense of urgency towards the eradication of child abuse, giving the protection of child the highest priority and taking all possible steps.
 
To restore confidence in government statistics, we will carry out thorough inspection to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again. The first meeting of the sub-commission for inspection and verification, which was established under the Statistics Commission. We will exert all-out efforts to prevent the recurrence of such cases, implementing necessary measures based on the inspection and reviews, and fulfill our political responsibility.
 
In the run up to the second U.S.-North Korea Summit Meeting scheduled to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 and 28, next week, I will hold a telephone summit meeting with President Trump, closely coordinate the policies of Japan and the United States, and encourage the process between the U.S. and North Korea. The Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea (AFVKN) and the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN) issued a message, which incorporates the earnest wishes of the families to dare the return of their family members. As the families of the abductees are aging, I believe that it is absolutely necessary for me to ultimately meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un next in order to resolve the issue at the earliest possible date. With the long-standing wishes of the families in our hearts, the Abe Cabinet is determined to act with resolution, without letting any opportunities slip by, in order to resolve the abductions issue, by any means necessary.
 
The GDP for the October to December period last year, published last week, has turned into a positive figure underpinned by an increase in private demand, such as the recovery of personal consumption and capital investment from the impact of disasters. Furthermore, with regard to employment, which holds the greatest importance for the lives of the people, the number of people employed increased by 3.8 million, and the number of people in regular employment increased by 1.31 million, which maintain an increase for the four consecutive year, despite the decline in the working-age population by 5 million people over the past six years. In the three-year period when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power, before we regained power, the number of people in regular employment had fallen by 500,000. Regular employment figures have now recovered, and further increased by more than twice that number. We have delivered significant results. In order to further strengthen this momentum, I aim to continue driving policies forward, putting the economy as the greatest priority. To that end, I ask for the cooperation of all members of the ruling parties.”