Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended the National Governors' Conference held at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the conference, the Prime Minister met with the metropolitan and prefectural governors including Mr. Keiji Yamada, President of the National Governors' Association (Governor of Kyoto Prefecture), and discussed the promotion of local sovereignty reforms, reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and other matters.

The Prime Minister said in his address, "I would like to thank you all for your support and cooperation at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake. We have received various forms of assistance from prefectures nationwide, including the dispatch of personnel, material aid, and acceptance of evacuees.
The earliest possible reconstruction of the disaster-stricken areas and conclusion of the nuclear accident are the biggest and top priority issues for the Noda Cabinet.
A meeting of the Budget Committee and the plenary session of the House of Councillors were being convened until a moment ago, resulting in the passage of the third supplementary budget. This budget will be allocated in line with the Basic Policy on Reconstruction in the form of flexible grants to disaster-stricken municipalities and to establish special tax grants for reconstruction, among other purposes. I want to have the budget executed at the earliest date possible so that that the reconstruction work is undertaken quickly and robustly.
For local sovereignty reforms, I intend to steadily push forward with reforms based on the Local Sovereignty Strategy Guidelines and the action plan toward the general abolition of ministerial branch offices. In particular, concerning the general abolition of ministerial branch offices, I have instructed the ministers to make utmost efforts in order to submit the bill during the next ordinary session of the Diet.
There are also a number of important issues remaining to be resolved concerning the local governments, including the comprehensive reform of social security and taxation systems. For these issues, I would like to use such schemes as the Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments, which was legislated this fiscal year, to fully reflect the opinions of the local stakeholders.
I would like to continue detailed discussion with everyone as we tackle local sovereignty reforms and various other policies with all our powers. I sincerely ask for your further understanding and cooperation."