Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended a meeting of the Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments held at the Prime Minister's Office.

Those attending the meeting on the national government side were: Mr. Osamu Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Tatsuo Kawabata, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications and Minister of State for Promotion of Local Sovereignty; Mr. Jun Azumi, Minister of Finance; Mr. Motohisa Furukawa, Minister for National Policy; and others. On the regional government side were representatives of six regional organizations. Discussion took place on FY2012 budget requests and the draft third supplementary budget for FY2011.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "We intend to continue robustly promoting steady reforms for regional sovereignty, the main point of which is making the relationship between contributions and benefits transparent for the people. I expect to have enthusiastic discussions with all of you, and to have thorough exchange of views through this forum, as we proceed with fundamental reforms. In this light I would like to thoroughly hear your opinion on the third supplementary budget as well the FY2012 budget."