Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held the 24th meeting of the Government Revitalization Unit at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on reforms of the special account and of independent administrative agencies, including the status of work of reflecting the outcome of the "proposal-based policy review" in the draft budget for FY2012.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "First, I would like to announce that I asked Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada to be in charge of the Meeting of the Government Revitalization Unit. Mr. Okada has a firm mindset to move quickly and push things forward and I intend to call upon his skills. As such, I once again earnestly ask for your even greater cooperation.
At today's meeting, we will have a report from the Minister of Finance about how the outcome of the proposal-based policy review was reflected in the budget. Whether or not we can enjoy the most significant benefit of the proposal-based policy review depends on how we improve the outcome when incorporating it in systems and policies to be established and formulated in the years to come. I would like to keep confirming with each other our intention of thoroughly conducting follow-ups.
As for reforms of the special account, this is the first time since the era of the Koizumi Cabinet that the reforms have become an item on the agenda. I will boldly reform the special account in a full-fledged manner. It appears that there has been a great advancement in terms of the framework, in that the decision was made to reduce the number of categories of the special account from 31 to 17. Now I wish to address the reform of the content. In that connection, I ask that you discuss a special reform plan to realize, in particular, a large reduction in the number of accounts.
As for reforms of independent administrative agencies, the issue has been discussed many times in this Meeting of the Government Revitalization Unit. Going forward, we will discuss and set a direction in which we move in advancing the reforms."