Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary

JAPANESE

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I have two items to report. I will first speak about today's Cabinet meeting. Six matters related to Cabinet orders and personnel matters were approved. In terms of what was reported by each minister, Minister of Justice, Satsuki Eda talked about the Diet report on the current state of legislation on controlling groups that have committed indiscriminate acts of mass murder, and the state of efforts for controling criminal groups via the Anti-Subversive Activities Act. Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Kansei Nakano spoke about the report on the state of the implementation of laws concerning the regulation of groups that have committed indiscriminate acts of mass murder, and the meeting discussed the matter.

Next, I would like to report on the first meting of the Headquarters for Measures against the Economic Impact caused by the Nuclear Power Station Incident. The headquarters were established on April 11 in order to discuss the basic framework of the Government for measures against the economic impact caused by the incident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The headquarters are led by Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda, and in today's meeting, he explained that in line with a Contract for Indemnification of Nuclear Damage Compensation based on the Atomic Energy Damage Compensation Law, appropriate emergency support measures would be provided by the Government to those who suffered losses due to the nuclear incident in the form of a temporary advance payment. That is a portion of the full compensation to be paid eventually, once the total extent of damage was ascertained, with the understanding that TEPCO will, in the end, pay the full amount of final compensation. The money shall be paid to those who have been forced to evacuate out of the region or indoors. This will be done to allow for the provision of needed funding as soon as possible. The headquarters approved this measure. We will have this headquarters continue to discuss this matter to ensure that the individuals and businesses affected by the nuclear incident receive appropriate compensation. The headquarters recognized the common opinion that the Government needs to decide and discuss as quickly and diligently as possible emergency measures to be provided to those in agriculture and the fisheries industry, as well as the overall basic framework for reconstruction. The decision made today was to ensure the payment of compensation, as quickly as possible, to those forced to evacuate out of the area where they reside or evacuate indoors. We must receive the cooperation of the mayors of the cities, towns and villages of the region in order to actually make these payments. In light of these steps, we will be again contacting all concerned persons via a number of different means. I would like everyone to please note that procedures for this will not necessarily start from today or tomorrow.

Q&As

REPORTER: Concerning the emergency support for those affected by the nuclear incident, some are reporting that the Government is discussing extending this support to those in the evacuation preparation zone as well. Is this true?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: The area which we imagine will be marked as an evacuation preparation zone is already within the indoor evacuation zone. This measure targets everyone living within 30km of the station, including those who have been instructed to stay indoors.

REPORTER: Based on what you said during the question and answer session in the Diet yesterday, does this also mean that these measures will be extended to those in any planned evacuation zones to be designated in the future?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Yes. That is the premise for this plan.

REPORTER: Yesterday, the head of the Reconstruction Design Council proposed the establishment of a reconstruction tax. Please tell us your thoughts about having the public bear the burden for reconstruction.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: This is of course the Government's responsibility in the end; which is to say, I think it is up to the Cabinet to make a decision on that. The Reconstruction Design Council has been set up to bring together many knowledgeable people, including its chair, President of the National Defense Academy Makoto Iokibe, and those from the private sector. Mr. Iokibe spoke of this yesterday, but this Council does not just intend to design the reconstruction process based on the opinions of the opposition and ruling parties; rather, it will take into account a variety of opinions. First, we will receive ideas from each member of the Council, and then the Government will make a final decision. I believe this is the basic gist of what we have requested of the Council.

REPORTER: I have one more question on that point - many have said that it is ridiculous to discuss reconstruction without discussing nuclear power stations. You have said before that a different framework would be established to discuss nuclear power stations though. Is this still the case?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Since when we were in the planning stages for this and first selected Mr. Iokibe as the Council's chair we have been exchanging opinions on this matter, naturally. Yesterday, due to the Diet session, I was only able to attend a portion of the Council meeting, but I was there when the members were discussing the issue of nuclear power stations. I don't want to suggest that there were many differing opinions on this, but there was some confusion as to how to treat the issue in the Council, which I need to confirm. The Reconstruction Design Council has been established to discuss the disaster, which has as one of its major causes the incident at the nuclear power station. I think that this will naturally mean that nuclear power stations will be a topic of discussion. However, I also think that clearly the discussion of exactly what must be done to bring the nuclear power station issue to a close and the theme of the Reconstruction Design Council are two separate topics. The Council is meant to discuss the concrete plan for reconstruction, and I think that obviously the timeframe for this will differ between regions for which work can only be started after the nuclear incident is concluded and regions which have been unaffected by this incident. This is the basic premise of the discussion in the Council. In terms of thinking about larger topics, the Council will of course debate nuclear power stations. This is what we have intended from the beginning. I believe that Mr. Iokibe also has this understanding.

REPORTER: I would like to ask about the reconstruction tax, which was touched upon earlier. I believe that a large amount of funding will be required for the reconstruction process from now on. At the current moment in time, do you think there is a need to increase taxes to help pay for this?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I believe that to some extent we already have a shared recognition that reconstruction will require a large amount of money. I think that naturally the Government will have to discuss this at length. However, as I have said previously, these matters, including the issue of financial resources, will be discussed in the Reconstruction Design Council. My position is only to inquire about what will happen from the Council. Of course, in accordance with changes in the urgency of the situation, since the Government has the final responsibility for this, I won't deny that there may be situations to which we must respond directly. However, first and foremost, we would like to make decisions based on the discussion of the Council. The Council led by Mr. Iokibe is approaching the discussion on a nation-wide-basis, which is to say that it is not restrained by the thoughts of the Government or ruling parties. For me to express my opinion before the Council has expressed its view is not quite the right order for things when one considers that we are in the position of having requested the Council to discuss these matters.

REPORTER: Yesterday, you said that the "proposals that will be formulated by the Council will be extremely influential." That being the case, if the Council makes a proposal that touches upon raising taxes, will this mean that the Government will respect that and that we will face the possibility of a tax hike?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: That is really a tough topic. I believe that I only said the proposals of the Council will be extremely influential. In the end, the Cabinet and Diet are responsible for making decisions on such issues. The issue is such that - from the position of someone in the Diet and in the Cabinet, the bodies which are ultimately held responsible for these matters by the public, I think that whatever happens, ultimately we will be the ones who will make a decision on these matters. It is just that the judgments we make, or the nature of the measures we approve, will be facilitated by the extremely influential proposals of the Council.

REPORTER: Regarding the funding for those affected by the nuclear incident, which you spoke about earlier, by when do you aim to make these payments exactly? Can you reveal anything about this at the current stage?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: As I answered in the Diet yesterday, since we are talking about money for those affected by the disaster, I want to do this as early as possible - I would actually like to figure out how to make payments before the "Golden Week" holiday period at the beginning of May. I have issued stern instructions about this. We need to proceed forward with the quickest achievable schedule possible. That said, we must basically have the cooperation of the cities, towns and villages in the region in order to identify who should receive these payments as residents of each respective municipality. Since those cities, towns and villages are currently under a state of evacuation due to the nuclear incident, we cannot overburden them by forcing them to make these payments quickly. We are currently exerting every effort to find a way to make the payments before the holiday period with a clear understanding of this situation.

REPORTER: Will TEPCO be deciding on the exact amount of temporary money to be paid? I have heard reports saying payments will be set at 1 million yen.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: No final decision has been made on this. I have already answered that question in the Diet and other venues, and I imagine that later on Minister Kaieda will give a report on the topic. Our basic thinking is that a temporary payment of 1 million yen per household, or somewhere in that range, will be necessary in line with the treatment of disaster victims.

REPORTER: Related to that, reports are saying that the base amount to be paid will be 1 million yen, but that depending on circumstances, 700,000 yen or 750,000 yen may be paid. I would like a comment on this.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: A decision about that will ultimately be worked out between Minister Kaieda and TEPCO within the Headquarters for Measures against the Economic Impact caused by the Nuclear Power Station Incident.

REPORTER: Is it correct to assume that the document on the guideline for compensation will include stipulations about whether evacuations were ordered by the national government or undertaken voluntarily and when evacuations were carried out, such as whether they happened at an early stage or not?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: First, basically, for the area 20km around the power station we issued instructions to evacuate. For the area 20 to 30km around the station, we instructed that everyone should stay indoors, but there are people who actually evacuated out of the area when we instructed this. Whether or not people evacuated voluntarily or evacuated indoors, everyone within 30km around the power station will be eligible for a temporary compensation payment this time

REPORTER: One more point concerning the tax hike - I think that reconstruction will be an extensive and long-term process, and will include, in a broad sense, the rebuilding of social security. In that sense, will the tax hike be pushed ahead as a separate agenda from the debate on the integrated reform of social security and the tax system, or will the two be linked? What are the future steps that will be taken with regard to the debate on taxation and social security?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: With regard to the integrated reform of social security and the tax system, as the Government has been fully engaged in dealing with the disaster in the one month since the earthquake struck, we have been unable to execute the plans initially drawn up for this. However, under Minister for Total Reform of Social Security and Tax, Kaoru Yosano, we are moving ahead with the practical aspects of this work, insofar as it does not impact our handling of the earthquake response operations. Although I am unable to say more than the fact that this will be balanced with the response to the disaster, what I can say now is that we are moving ahead with such practical aspects as far as is justifiable on the one hand, and making decisions based on the situation caused by the disaster on the other.

REPORTER: Changing the topic a little, I believe President of the House of Councillors Takeo Nishioka has in fact made a remark to the effect of asking the Prime Minister to resign, which I think is a serious comment coming from one of the heads of the three branches of government. What are your thoughts on that?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Many people are currently suffering as a result of the earthquake, and countless others have also been affected by the nuclear incident. While the Government is doing the best, I think it is natural for differing opinions to surface. In particular, I believe that we have to handle the crisis with serious consideration for the opinions and wishes of those affected by it. Thus, even though it is, in a sense, natural for differing opinions to crop up in such situations, our efforts in dealing with the earthquake and the nuclear incident cannot be allowed to slow down even for a single day. From the position of a member of the Cabinet, I will say that while accepting that there are various opinions, we continue to do our constant best to fulfill the responsibilities that we have been given.

REPORTER: Some reports state that Ichiro Ozawa, former head of the Democratic Party of Japan, has expressed an interest in meeting with the Prime Minister. Do you think that Prime Minister Kan would respond to such a request?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I am aware that there have been such reports, but I don't know anything about the matter beyond that.