• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

 
On August 4, 2020, the Prime Minister attended the first hearing of the Council on Investments for the Future at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Prime Minister said in his address following the hearing,
 
“Anticipating our society in the age of the novel coronavirus and the future beyond that, we must hold a rigorous discussion over our growth strategy towards a new normal for everyday life. To that end, we have expanded the meetings of the Council on Investments for the Future for the time being.  
 
We must ask the public for reforms of business models towards a new normal for everyday life, along with establishing new work styles through reviewing ways of doing businesses. We will prevent the spread of infections and firmly promote socio-economic activities. On this occasion, to start such discussions, we wanted to listen to the candid views of the public. Therefore today, we asked for your comments and exchanged views with all of you.
 
At this first hearing being held today, we are joined by those who have actually migrated to rural areas, while working remotely, and officers in charge from those companies that reviewed their workflow and expanded telework. The participants gave us specific and valuable proposals such as the necessity of migrating to cloud computing and advancing digitization; the simplification of time management for those who telework; support for short-time trial relocation; the renovation of public facilities, such as abandoned schools, into satellite offices; and the necessity of support to top management for their understanding. We would like to address each and every point one by one at the Council on Investments for the Future. We have had truly valuable comments from those who are taking on the challenges of various new forms of workstyles and lifestyles, such as migrating to rural areas before the coronavirus outbreak and working remotely. Thank you very much."