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

Report Submitted to the Prime Minister from The Government-Labor-Management Employment Promotion Council Wednesday, December 4, 2002 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi received a report on an agreement reached among representative of government, labor and management at the Government-Labor-Management Employment Promotion Council submitted by Chikara Sakaguchi, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Kiyoshi Sasamori, President of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) and Hiroshi Okuda, Chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. On November 26, 2002 Prime Minister Koizumi requested President Sasamori of Rengo and Chairman Okuda of Nippon Keidanren to make efforts to ensure that government, labor and management would cooperate on future employment measures. In response, Government-Labor-Management Employment Promotion Council conducted considerations on measures that could be taken to address the urgent issues of maintaining and securing employment and "Government-Labor-Management Agreement on Employment" was approved at the meeting held on this day. This Agreement consists of three pillars: maintaining and securing employment, promotion of job acquisition and reform of the labor market, under which the necessary consultations will be held among government, labor and management so that they can take an integrated approach toward the creation of a system to promote re-employment, assistance for the establishment of companies and business start-ups, including special measures for lowering the minimum amount of capitalization required for incorporation, and reform of the employment insurance system. After receiving the report, Prime Minster stated, "The Government will take all possible measures to secure a safety net for employment in light of this agreement among government, labor and management. As such, I call upon all of you to continue to provide excellent cooperation in this regard."