Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

JAPANESE

Q&As

REPORTER: Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Kaieda gave a press conference this morning and indicated his intention to change the three top nuclear energy related officials, including the Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. First of all, how do you see Mr. Kaieda's policy on this as the Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Government?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: As Minister Kaieda reported, the Prime Minister, followed by myself, was informed on August 2, I believe it was, that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) wanted to refresh the personnel of the secretariat. I understand that the Prime Minister's response at this time was that he will basically leave it up to the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. The specific and final details of the personnel changes are being worked out right now, and I believe once a formal decision is made, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry will be making an announcement, including the details.

REPORTER: What is the objective of the personnel changes?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Minister Kaieda was speaking about this in his press conference a moment ago. Amid the various circumstances facing METI under his leadership, Minister Kaieda, the presiding minister, requested to change the personnel, and the Prime Minister said that he will basically leave it up to the Minister. Once a formal decision is made, I believe Minister Kaieda will be giving a more detailed report.

REPORTER: In that case, is my understanding correct that, as you said, the personnel changes of METI were made under the leadership of Minister Kaieda rather than Prime Minister Kan?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: The Minister of Finance was also present when, on August 2, Minister Kaieda first gave a report to the Prime Minister and then to me. In general, what Minister Kaieda said was that he wanted to refresh the personnel, and therefore, asked for our cooperation with the arrangements moving forward. The Prime Minister, too, said that he told Minister Kaieda that he was leaving it up to the Minister, and therefore, asked for my cooperation with the arrangements. The Prime Minister's response was based on the request of Minister Kaieda.

REPORTER: Minister Kaieda did not give a clear explanation at his press conference about why such major personnel changes need to take place at this timing, when the nuclear incident has not been brought under control. What are your thoughts about the validity of carrying out major personnel changes at this timing?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Once a formal decision is made about the specific details of the personnel changes, I believe Minister Kaieda will be giving a detailed report about the content.

REPORTER: I have a related question. I believe in May, you announced that there will in effect be a freeze on personnel changes for senior officials. I believe all of the people we are speaking about are senior personnel. Can you explain how this is consistent with your announcement? Also, if there were reasons to break this policy and force the officials to quit, what were the reasons?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: What I have said was to the effect that there will be a de facto freeze in principle. Naturally, since this is about personnel changes, there may be other factors involved. For instance, the easiest example to understand is the case in which a person reaches the retirement age, and therefore, the person naturally must be moved. What I stated was really the principle regarding personnel changes. Even up to now, at the meetings to decide on personnel matters we have approved those personnel changes which the ministries individually deemed necessary based on overall judgments.

REPORTER: It has been rumored from before that Minister Kaieda wants to resign, and some believe that the latest personnel shake-up is intended to create a reason for Minister Kaieda himself to take responsibility by resigning. What are your opinions regarding this point?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Although I understand that there are a variety of things being reported by the media, as you are all aware, also from looking at the series of today's stories, not everything reported by the media is accurate.

REPORTER: I believe changes in personnel above the ranks of Director-General of each ministry are subject to Cabinet approval. Will the resignation of the three officials and their replacements be approved at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, without waiting for the passage of the Bill to Promote Renewable Energies?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Consultations for finalizing the specific details are being worked out right now. Once a decision is made, I will report it to you.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: I have a question regarding the personnel changes of METI. I can understand personnel changes for reasons related to the response to the nuclear incident. However, the Director-General of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy is not directly related to the response to the nuclear incident. In fact, I believe he is involved with the long-term nuclear energy policy. What are the Cabinet's thoughts with regards to forcing the Director-General of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy to quit as well?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: The specific details about the latest personnel changes, such as their objective, were summarized a moment ago by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in his press conference. When a formal decision is made, I believe the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry will once again be explaining the details, including the content of the personnel changes.

REPORTER: While no explanation has been given about the clear reason, I believe politics is also largely responsible for the series of responses to the nuclear incident or the confusion surrounding the restart of the nuclear power stations. I don't believe that it was not only the decision and action taken by officials which led to the confusion. What are your thoughts on the responsibility of politics?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I watched the press conference of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry on TV, and I don't believe he gave the reasons you just mentioned.

REPORTER: I have a related question. You received a report from the Minister on August 2, and I believe the Minister explained that he wanted to refresh the personnel. Did he explain the reason?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Since this is about personnel changes, I believe when a formal decision is made, Minister Kaieda who has the authority to make personnel changes will be reporting their content, if there is anything which should be reported.

REPORTER: Has there been an explanation from Minister Kaieda to you about the replacement of personnel, including the matter of his own, that is Mr. Kaieda's own resignation?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: There have been absolutely no conversations to that effect.

REPORTER: I think that earlier Prime Minister Kan said something like, "I will leave it up to the Minister." As it is said that Prime Minister Kan has strong dissatisfaction toward and distrust of METI, did the current personnel reshuffle happen partly due to those thoughts of the Prime Minister?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: You need to inquire to Minister Kaieda for that matter, but I received a report from Minister Kaieda that when he talked to the Prime Minister about this, he was told, "It is fine to go in that direction so I will leave the details and specifics to you." I later confirmed with the Prime Minister if that is the case. That is all.

REPORTER: I would just like to confirm one point. Are you saying that essentially it came from Mr. Kaieda in the first place, and that it wasn't the case that the Prime Minister had indicated such an intention to Mr. Kaieda and made him raise it for the formality's sake?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I think that probably was not the case, because there are many issues that go beyond METI, including the issue of nuclear power, so if there were any instructions or requests from the Prime Minister about important matters, at such times the Prime Minister would have told me that he had instructed such and such. Or, Minister Kaieda would have consulted me, as he usually does, saying, "I received these instructions from the Prime Minister but how should I proceed?" Absolutely nothing like this has happened so I think the Prime Minister had not made any request to Mr. Kaieda.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Please tell us about what you discussed in your talks with the Governor of Miyagi Prefecture earlier.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I think you might have heard some of the Governor's statement at the start of the meeting. We discussed the specific priority requests for reconstruction, in particular the securing of the budget for it. There were requests from the Governor, and the city mayors and the town mayors, about several items, including discussions about special zones, and also, for example, about handling the damage from the nuclear incident. They said they wanted a strong response for Miyagi as well with regard to the nuclear incident, even though Fukushima was in the worst situation, and the Prime Minister made a comment to the effect that the government will robustly address these matters.

REPORTER: Did the Governor make any comments with regard to the Basic Policy on Reconstruction decided the other day?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: I remember he said at the start of the meeting, "thank you for deciding this," but he said nothing else beyond that. I would venture to say precisely that there was a request about the content that would flesh out the specific details of the policy.

REPORTER: The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s Project Team for Dealing with the Impact of the Nuclear Incident has submitted a recommendation to the Government regarding the nationalization of the land in the vicinity of the nuclear station. What are your thoughts on how the Government will handle the nationalization of this land?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY EDANO: Since these are recommendations and proposals that have been studied from a variety of angles within the party, I think that we have to take them very seriously. Firstly we must bring this incident to a conclusion, and then ensure people can return as soon as possible to places where an early return is highly possible, and these efforts include decontamination. For this, we must carefully monitor which regions people can return to quickly, carry out zoning, and then explain the zones to everyone involved. We are starting by putting all of our energies into that work now. As this process goes on, I would like to finalize the details, including the details of these recommendations, regarding what we should do for the regions in which an early return does not seem very likely, in particular taking into account the lives of everyone who used to live in those regions.

(Abridged)