• 
• 
• 

 
 
On May 15, 2020, the Prime Minister held the seventh meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy in 2020 at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, the participants held an intensive discussion on monetary policy, commodity prices and other issues, along with a discussion on building a new normal for everyday life (in the fields of education and science and technology).

Following the discussions, the Prime Minister said,

“Today, we first held an intensive discussion on monetary policy and commodity prices. Yesterday, I instructed the formulation of the second supplementary budget of this fiscal year. Fundamentally enhancing Employment Adjustment Subsidies, establishing a new assistance scheme to reduce the burden of rents, establishing a new mechanism for supporting students, extending robust support to solve various issues faced by medical institutions, and providing liquidity support for large companies and those relatively smaller ones; these will be the main pillars of the budget. We also partially lifted the state of emergency yesterday. In the course of this, we recently proposed a ‘New Lifestyle,’ and the respective guidelines on preventive measures were compiled for each of more than 80 industries. We are taking steps towards the new stage to restore socio-economic activities, while remaining vigilant to prevent infections, to create a new normal for everyday life. No country in the world has found any solution yet, which is to say that we are approaching an extremely critical moment. Indeed, this will be a phase in which we will have to find a solution through experiencing occasional trial and error. In response to this changing situation, I hope that the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters and the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy will coordinate even more closely, and steer the efforts to balance the prevention of infections with the revitalization of the economy. And, looking ahead to a time when we have overcome this crisis, we will establish and accelerate a new normal for everyday life, promoting societal transformation. I ask this Council to thoroughly discuss the direction for this response and the initiatives that are required, and include them in this year’s Basic Policy (for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform).

Afterwards, we held a discussion on education, and science and technology. The spread of infections this time has caused great hardship for and worry among students, children, and their guardians. There is an urgent need to ensure that we do not halt learning and prevent educational gaps from widening, just as the expert members pointed out. I ask Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hagiuda to expeditiously advance initiatives on digitization and remote technologies in the field of education. In addition, the spread of infections has caused us to reconfirm the importance of investment in research and development that can resolve social issues, including digitization, remote technologies, artificial intelligence, and robotics. I ask Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Takemoto to vigorously promote them, while including them in the next Science and Technology Basic Plan.