Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama held the third meeting of the Employment Strategy Dialogue at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, the members discussed the new growth strategy (employment and human resources strategy) and other matters.

At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Hatoyama said in his address, "The government attaches great importance to employment policies and believes that they can definitely be linked to the growth strategy. I would like to mention three points on the theme of today's meeting. The first point is the development of the safety net. I think it is important that we create a structure for more considerate and personal support for every single individual by overcoming the limitation of the vertically-segmented assistance structure. The second point is the nurturing and assessment of practical vocational skills. The new growth sectors are facing a challenge from the still weak structure of vocational skills development, for which I would like to consider creating a structure to nurture and assess practical vocational skills involving the entire society including educational institutions. The third point is the raising of minimum wages. I acknowledge the raising of wages as being crucial from the perspective of expanding consumption as well. I intend to tackle this issue proactively, while also considering the possibility of extending a certain kind of assistance to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on which the raising of minimum wages will have a great impact."