Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� October, 2002

Seventh Meeting of the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property Wednesday, October 16, 2002 The seventh meeting of the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in attendance. In the meeting, discussion centered on the basic bill on intellectual property aimed at advancing focused and planned measures promoting the creation, protection and application of intellectual property, in order to realize a dynamic economy and society through business activity with intellectual property at its core, and the Council agreed on the bill. The private members of the Council together presented Prime Minister Koizumi with a written request for improvements to the structure of the Secretariat of the Intellectual Property Strategic Headquarters after the basic bill is enacted into law and for swift completion of a promotion program for intellectual property. At the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi stated, "The discoveries and inventions of the two Japanese awarded Nobel Prizes last week on the one hand drew closer to the truth of the universe and on the other, advanced the development of life sciences. What is important is that in Japan we are creating globally valuable intellectual property, and protecting and applying that property contributes to the progress and prosperity of the world." It is planned that the basic bill on intellectual property will be submitted to the extraordinary session of the Diet following a Cabinet decision.