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What's up around the Prime Minister

The 19th Meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy


Tuesday, September 27, 2005



Photograph of the meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy


The 19th Meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.

At this first meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy since the inauguration of the Third Koizumi Cabinet, the knowledgeable members gave a recommendation on the immediate agenda of the Council entitled, "For Accelerating the Structural Reform" in response to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's remark to "reduce the size of the government boldly" in the general policy speech he delivered on September 26.

In addition, a more detailed recommendation was given on the "reform of the total amount of personnel costs of civil servants" as well as "Market Testing." As for the former item, the recommendation pointed out the need to establish a bold and drastic reduction target as well as to sort out the operations through utilizing, for example, such methods as the work out of the private sector (discharge unnecessary operations) in order to achieve this target figure and realize an effective net reduction in the capacity number. As for the latter item, the members voiced the need for an early submission of a bill.

In the evening, in response to questions on the recommendation given by the knowledgeable members, Prime Minister Koizumi stated, "Whether it is reducing the number of civil servants or reducing the size of the government, this will be done on the basis of thorough deliberations. We have a lot of work ahead of us."