Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

JAPANESE

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

(Abridged)

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Next, pursuant to Article 9 of the Cabinet Act, there was a statement concerning the designation of Cabinet Ministers who would serve as acting Prime Minister in a contingency. The order of precedence is as follows: the first person is myself, Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura; second is Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Kano; third is Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Kawabata; fourth is Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission Yamaoka; and fifth is Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Maeda.

Next, in terms of personnel matters, in order to ensure that full disaster prevention measures are in place in anticipation of the typhoon that is expected to come ashore this weekend, various appointments were confirmed, which are detailed in the documents that have been distributed to you, including the reappointment of Yukihiko Akutsu as Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet Office and also the appointment of the Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau.

(Abridged)

Next, the Prime Minister made a statement concerning "the formulation of the third supplementary budget for FY2011 and countermeasures to respond to the yen's appreciation." The first Cabinet meeting of the Noda Administration was then concluded.

(Abridged)

I would like to provide an explanation concerning the "Prime Minister's instructions concerning the formulation of the third supplementary budget for FY2011 and countermeasures to respond to the yen's appreciation," which I have just mentioned. Firstly, as you can see from the reference materials distributed to you, the Prime Minister has instructed each Cabinet Minister that requests for the third supplementary budget should be compiled and submitted to the Minister of Finance by Friday, September 9, 2011, based on the Basic Guidelines for Reconstruction in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake that was decided on July 29, 2011. Secondly, the Minister of Finance will play a central role in the compilation of fiscal resources for reconstruction measures, working to secure resources through reductions in expenditure and also through non-tax revenues. In addition the Tax Commission will advance discussions on the number of options that are available concerning time-limited taxation measures. Thirdly, measures to respond to the yen's appreciation will be compiled by the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, based on the "Concept and Matters for Consideration Concerning a Comprehensive Response to Yen Appreciation" decided on August 29, 2011. In this process, items that will require new fiscal measures should be dealt with in accordance with the guidelines for budget requests for the third supplementary budget. These were the three items for which the Prime Minister gave instructions. For further details please direct your questions to the Ministry of Finance or the Cabinet Office. Recovery and reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and a response to the recent rapid appreciation of the yen are the highest priority challenges for the Government, and the new Cabinet will make concerted efforts to deal swiftly with them.

Q&As

REPORTER: In today's roundtable ministerial discussions following the Cabinet meeting, did the Prime Minister give any instructions or make any comments concerning the formation of the Cabinet and the start of the new administration?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: As this was the first Cabinet meeting, following the conclusion of roundtable ministerial discussions we held a toast. At the end of the discussions, the Prime Minister did state that the new Cabinet which is inaugurated today must press forward with responses to the various major crises that we are currently facing. He also mentioned briefly that we must engage in our work with a sense of urgency.

REPORTER: You mentioned that the Prime Minister gave instructions for budget requests for the third supplementary budget to be submitted by September 9. When do you expect that the actual supplementary budget draft will be completed? Also, when do you expect that the draft budget will be submitted to the Diet? Will this require the convocation of an extraordinary Diet session?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: As the third supplementary budget relates to budgetary items for reconstruction, there have been requests that it should be compiled as quickly as possible. Requests from the various ministries and agencies will therefore be submitted by September 9. As the Prime Minister has already noted on a number of occasions, the draft budget will then be subject to consultation between the ruling and opposition parties and therefore it is impossible to say at the current point when the compilation will be completed and when the Diet session to approve the budget will be convened.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: In your press conference this morning you stated that there were some areas where initial recovery had yet to be achieved in the process of recovery and reconstruction from the disaster. You have served yourself on the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) review committee for recovery and reconstruction, so speaking from the perspective of the DPJ, what areas do you think require further improvement on the part of the Government?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: As you have just mentioned, from shortly after 3:00pm on March 11, I have served as Secretary General of the DPJ Great East Japan Earthquake Response Headquarters and have been closely involved in various operations, including visits to the disaster-affected areas on frequent occasions. Subsequently I was also appointed as a Senior Director of the DPF of the Special Committee on Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and in this position I have also made field visits to the disaster-affected areas. This is a relatively new area. There are a number of issues we face and one typical example relates to the disposal of debris. At the moment, in many cases disposal operations have only reached the primary stages and have not moved on to the secondary and final disposal stages. This is therefore still a matter relating to recovery. Another issue concerns contaminated sludge, particularly sludge contaminated with radioactive materials and efforts to deal with this contaminated sludge have not proceeded in line with expectations, highlighting that recovery efforts in this area have been insufficient. These are just two examples that I have given. In that sense, I believe that on the whole, instead of just stressing reconstruction, we should recognize that there are still areas where recovery efforts are insufficient.

REPORTER: I have a question concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). In his recent press conference the Prime Minister stated that he would like to reach a conclusion on this issue in the near future. What processes do you think that the Cabinet will have to implement in order to reach a conclusion on this issue? Have you decided on any points in particular as you move towards reaching a conclusion?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I am aware that a Cabinet decision of August 15 approved an overall picture for policy promotion on this issue. It states that the TPP is also related to the reconstruction of agriculture in the disaster-affected areas, and the government will conduct thorough discussions taking into account the progress of international negotiations as well as other concerns including a hollowing out of industry, and after the comprehensive consideration, will make a decision on Japan's participation in the TPP negotiation and its timing as early as possible. That is the Government view at the present time.