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On August 19, 2021, the Prime Minister held a meeting with Mr. MIMURA Akio, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tokyo.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address,
 
 “Thank you very much for taking your time today. I also would like to express my appreciation to Chairman Mimura and members of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry for your various cooperation on a daily basis amid the pandemic of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
 
Now we face a situation where the number of new infections has been increasing day after day due to the highly infectious Delta strain. Under such circumstances, the Government intends to proceed toward curbing infections by all means, with the expansion of medical systems, infection prevention measures, and vaccinations as three pillars. We decided two days ago to extend the declaration of a state of emergency in Tokyo to firmly expand such systems.
 
We need to reduce the flow of people to overcome this situation. In addition, as clusters have been occurring at workplaces, we must make every possible effort to prevent these. Taking this into consideration, we would like to request the adoption of teleworking. This is why I came here today. Especially in spring last year, the business community achieved a 70 percent reduction in the number of those commuting to their workplaces. I came here to sincerely request as much cooperation as possible, in particular cooperation from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small-scale business operators, although there are various types of businesses with their own characteristics, which may cause difficulties.
 
Meanwhile, the Government, on its part, make robust responses in what it should do, including rendering payments to business operators that cooperate with our requests and providing Employment Adjustment Subsidies. In addition, we would like to firmly pave the way for the economic recovery through vaccinations and other measures. In this sense, we would like to overcome this crisis with your cooperation. Thank you.”