"Hello, this is Shinzo Abe" -- Message from the Prime Minister
(Provisional Translation)

Profile

Japanese

From Europe: The First E-mail Magazine of 2007

Happy New Year. This is Shinzo Abe.

How did you all spend the holiday season? I think that by now the New Year mood has largely faded, and you are all back to working or studying hard.

For me, the new year got off to a refreshing start. Especially, the view I saw of Mount Fuji from Tokyo on New Year's Day left a strong impression on me.

At the moment, I am in the middle of my official tour of Europe. In fact, I am writing this issue of the e-mail magazine, the first of 2007, on the government plane as I travel from London to Berlin.

The government plane is a working environment, equipped with quite a large desk and a computer, as well as systems set up to maintain contact with people on the ground. I cannot let my vigilance down just because I am on a plane. I was actually en route from Beijing to Seoul when North Korea conducted its nuclear test last year.

Usually my family and I visit our local shrine in Shimonoseki at the beginning of the year, but this year I had to put aside the desire to go back to my hometown, instead staying at a Tokyo hotel with my family. Even then, I received constant reports on international and domestic developments, and there were a large number of issues requiring direction from me as Prime Minister.

In the hotel I also prepared for my visit to Europe and for the East Asia Summit (EAS), and developed the framework for my policy speech at the upcoming ordinary Diet session. My only relaxation consisted of two movies I slipped out of the hotel to watch. Spending a leisurely New Year doesn't seem to be part of a Prime Minister's job description.

On the contrary, over the New Year holidays I became even more keenly aware of the weight of the responsibility of leading this country that has been entrusted to me.

Again this year, as Prime Minister I will work with wholehearted commitment, never letting up for even a moment in my mission to protect the lives and assets of the people of Japan.

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[Learning Media English with E-mail Magazine]

- Answer to the quiz in the Japanese Version E-mail Magazine

Q: How do you say "kokuren-anzen-hoshou-rijikai" in English?
A: The UN Security Council.

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[What's up around the Prime Minister]