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On April 30, 2021, the Prime Minister held an exchange of views with the President of the Japan Medical Association and the President of the Japan Nursing Association at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Prime Minister said in his address,
 
 “I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to medical practitioners for making great efforts around the clock to save the health and lives of the public, as the daily battle against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues.
 
Vaccination serves as the decisive factor in countermeasures against COVID-19. I announced in a recent press conference that we will strive to promptly complete the inoculation of medical practitioners and aim to finish the vaccination of the elderly, keeping its completion by the end of July in mind.
 
With regards to vaccine supply, we have specific prospects that 100 million doses by Pfizer alone will be supplied by the end of June. Our biggest remaining challenge is how to secure a system for vaccination. Therefore, we have decided to make government-wide efforts to strongly encourage local governments to accelerate their vaccination schedule as well as to launch large-scale vaccination centers by the Self-Defense Forces in Tokyo and Osaka late next month to offer strong support to the efforts by the local governments. We ask each municipality to take bold steps to strengthen their system on weekdays and to conduct inoculation on holidays and during nighttime. We understand medical practitioners have experienced considerable hardship but humbly seek their further cooperation.
 
The Government will create an environment that will facilitate cooperation by significantly raising unit payments for vaccination on holidays and during nighttime and providing support for medical institutions and other organizations that dispatch doctors and nurses to administer mass vaccination.
 
In order to overcome the national emergency of COVID-19, I sincerely ask President Nakagawa of the Japan Medical Association and President Fukui of the Japan Nursing Association to once again appeal to medical associations and nursing associations throughout the country to gain cooperation from many medical practitioners in conducting vaccination.”