Prime Minister Naoto Kan attended the sixth meeting for consultations between the national and regional governments at the Prime Minister's Office.

Those attending the meeting on the national government's side were: Mr. Yoshito Sengoku, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Yoshihiro Katayama, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications and Minister of State for Promotion of Local Sovereignty, Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, Minister of Finance, Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister of State for National Policy, and Ms. Renho, Minister of State for Government Revitalization. On the regional government's side were representatives of the six regional organizations. An exchange of views took place on local sovereignty reforms, child allowance, and local finance measures.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "In formulating the budget, I repeatedly called on ministers to set out how the block grants can be specifically incorporated in the budget. While initially the grant allocation framework was in the range of only several billion yen, the government has just secured a framework of over 500 billion yen to start with for the first fiscal year.
The government is also in the process of laying out a plan and vision for streamlining the regional offices of the national government amid the ongoing debate on the issue.
Concerning the three bills on local sovereignty, I deeply regret that we failed to pass the bills during the extraordinary session of the Diet as we had intended.
Be that as it may, I recognize that these are major programs for transforming the configuration of Japan and I ask that a wide range of discussions continue to take place with both parties, the national government and local governments of all levels, working firmly together towards the realization of local sovereignty."