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On April 13, 2021, the Prime Minister attended a Liaison Meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties at the Prime Minister’s Office.

In the opening, the Prime Minister said,

 “We have entered a new fiscal year.

We are engaging in deliberations on bills one after another in the Diet which are important to people’s lives, including those for promoting digital transformation and healthcare reform. The government as a whole intends to respond with a sense of urgency at the Diet in order to steadily enact each and every bill. I would like to ask for continued cooperation of the ruling parties.

Priority measures, such as for prevention of the spread of disease, have been in place in Miyagi, Osaka, and Hyogo Prefectures since last week and in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Okinawa Prefectures since yesterday. These measures were established in the amended Act on Special Measures for Pandemic Influenza and New Infectious Diseases Preparedness and Response, which was enacted thanks to your efforts. We will work in cooperation with local governments and take strong area- and time- limited measures, including patrols of, in principle, all dining and drinking establishments, and thereby preventing waves arising in local areas from forming a large, nation-wide wave at any rate. In this regard, I would like to seek your continued cooperation.

Vaccinations for the elderly started yesterday. Going forward, we plan to deliver doses enough for the half of the elderly to receive their first vaccination to respective local governments by May 23 and those enough for all of them to receive vaccination twice by the end of June. I immediately visited the vaccination site in Hachioji City yesterday and heard from the mayor that residents had high expectations for vaccination. We will make utmost efforts in close cooperation with local governments, in order to vaccinate as many elderly people as possible at the earliest possible time.

I am going to visit Washington D.C. in the United States, from the 15th to the 18th this week and hold a summit meeting with President Joe Biden on the 16th local time. This will be the first summit where President Biden holds a face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader, and thus I believe this visit will be extremely significant in further strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I would like to affirm the bilateral collaboration and cooperation in various issues, such as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), climate change, challenges related to China, North Korea’s nuclear and missile issues, and above all, abductions issue.

Regarding the issue of climate change in particular, the U.S.-hosted Leaders Summit on Climate is slated on the 22nd next week, while the G7 Summit is scheduled in the United Kingdom in June. At the timing of such events, major countries are expected to announce their targets for emissions reductions by 2030. Against this backdrop, I believe Japan needs to set an ambitious target in line with our goal of realizing carbon-neutrality by 2050 as soon as possible and lead discussions in the international community. Hence, we will accelerate our discussions.

We held an inter-ministerial council this morning, regarding the handling of ALPS (Multi-nuclides removal equipment) treated water, a challenge we must face in the path towards the reconstruction of Fukushima, and decided that discharging the treated water into the sea was the realistic option. Going forward, we will undertake preparations and begin the discharge into the sea in two years. We will effectively secure the safety of the discharge, by reducing the concentration of tritium in treated water to one-fortieth of the domestic regulatory standard value and one-seventh of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines for drinking water quality value.

We must not allow the adverse impacts on reputation and other issues to lose hopes of local people for reconstruction. Last week, I myself met people in the fishing industry and listened to their strong anxiety. Squarely facing concerns of those on the frontline, I will of course take the lead, but I instructed all ministers to make every possible effort to present information based on scientific evidence and to implement thorough countermeasures to minimize the adverse impacts on reputation.

In this fiscal year, we will continue to serve as the Cabinet that works for the people, to make every effort to respond to COVID-19 and achieve economic recovery as the top priorities in tandem with the ruling parties, and to deliver results in tackling each and every challenge. I would appreciate your cooperation.”