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Prime Minister Observes Job Cafe Chiba and Chiba Prefecture Consumer Center Wednesday, April 16, 2008 JAPANESE

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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visited Job Cafe Chiba in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture. Job Cafe is a one-stop facility to provide youth with employment-related services, such as consultations on employment searches and provision of information for job seekers. In particular, Job Cafe Chiba provides assistance for young job seekers including "freeters" (job-hopping part-timers) and recruitment support for local companies. After observing the service counters, Prime Minister Fukuda attended a meeting in which opinions were exchanged with youth. He listened to what they had to say, including their requests to the government. After that, Prime Minister Fukuda visited Chiba Prefecture Consumer Center, which protects the lives of consumers in the prefecture and offers relevant consultation services. There he observed product inspections and the handling of telephone inquiries by consumer consultation staff. After the observation, Prime Minister Fukuda said of the Job Cafe, "Some young people are apparently struggling to find jobs. I hope these people will visit the Job Cafe and find suitable employment. I consider it important to support young people in these ways." Prime Minister Fukuda also referred to the consumer consultation services, by saying, "I was truly heartened to see each one of them working with a deep sense of their responsibility, doing their utmost to give the most complete answers to the people. I was strongly convinced of the need to further enhance this kind of system. Being on site, I felt eager to see the consumer center act as a link between the administration and the people in the prefecture, as a contact point in times of trouble."