Prime Minister Naoto Kan held the sixth meeting of the Council on the Realization of the New Growth Strategy at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the draft outline of the Program for Realizing the New Growth Strategy in 2011, and other matters.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said, "I believe that substantial achievements were made by breaking through the barriers that hitherto rendered some of our policies impossible to be realized. That can be seen in our successful bid to construct a nuclear power plant in Viet Nam, advancement of comprehensive economic partnership (EPA) initiatives, and lowering of the effective corporate tax rate by 5%, for example, and as such I believe concrete steps forward have been taken.
Ultimately, I would like to formulate the budget for the next fiscal year, focusing on growth and employment in line with the New Growth Strategy, by December 24, according to the current schedule.
Today, discussion took place on the New Growth Strategy for FY2011. I consider now to be the crucial moment that determines whether Japan will overcome deflation in the next two years and fully return to a path of growth, shaking off the stagnation that Japan has suffered for the past two decades."