Prime Minister Naoto Kan attended the 24th meeting of the Tax Commission in FY2010, chaired by Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, Minister of Finance, at the Prime Minister's Office, and received a report from Finance Minister Noda on the FY2011 tax reform.

The Prime Minister said in his address, "Japan's economic growth has unfortunately been stalled for the past two decades, leading to continued social stagnation. Amidst this situation, I asked that discussions be held on the taxation system with a focus on employment and growth, coupled with discussion on the budget.

In this light, I believe a solid consensus, or understanding, was reached on the reduction of corporate tax that it should not be a simple reduction but should be coupled with corporate efforts to hire more people, increase salaries, and enhance domestic investment using that money. I understand this move as being integral to the tax reform.

We will also be considering a several tax reform initiatives to realize the basic philosophy of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) of putting the lives of the people first. In particular, we are focusing on addressing disparities, against the backdrop of the growing tendency for disparities to widen in the past five to ten years. On this point, it is my understanding and expectation that asking for a greater contribution from those who are relatively well off, through inheritance tax and other taxes, will in the end create more jobs and result in more regular employees, leading to the overall correction of disparities.

Now that I have received the Tax Commission report, based on this I would like to conclude the budget formulation, which is in its final stage, by the end of the next week."