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Council on the Modality of Health, Labor, and Welfare Policies Thursday, August 7, 2008 JAPANESE

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda attended the 1st meeting of the Council on the Modality of Health, Labor, and Welfare Policies at the Prime Minister's Office. The Council was established as part of the Five-Point Reassurance Plan: Emergency Measures to Strengthen the Function of Social Security, with the purpose of comprehensively reviewing health, labor, and welfare policies, considering their modality, and seeking to reconstruct them. The background to the establishment of the Council lies in the Cabinet's urgent task of promoting health, labor, and welfare policies close to the people's lives and from the public's viewpoint, in order that the people's understanding of the policies be gained, and their trust in them restored. Opinions exchanged at the meeting included those on the meeting procedures. In his opening address, Prime Minister Fukuda said, "Various problems have been identified in the social security system itself. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which governs the social security system, is also beset by a variety of problems. It was from this perspective that the establishment of the Council was decided on. I ask the Council members to hold discussions on the modality of health, labor, and welfare policies. Services that can fully satisfy the needs of each and every one of the people are essential if their understanding is to be gained. Such services cannot be realized through over-compartmentalized administration. As its main agenda item, I would like the Council to consider how best to provide the people with better services, with the aim of making the organization better."