Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended a meeting of the Frontier of Wisdom Panel, one of the four panels of the Frontier Subcommittee of the Council on National Strategy and Policy, held at the Cabinet Office Main Building.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "We are currently explaining to the people across the nation the Government's efforts to promote the comprehensive reform of social security and taxation systems. The most basic premise is the major change to Japan's demographic structure.
When most of you were born, Japan was a society in which one elderly person was supported by many people. Currently, there are three people to support one elderly person. Twenty years from now there will be two people to one elderly person, and by 2050 - which our vision is focused on - one person will be supporting one elderly person. Plainly speaking, the population will shift from a pyramid structure to an inverted-pyramid structure, and the issue is how Japan will survive amidst this great change.
In particular, for one person to be able to support one elderly person in the 2050s, both the supporters and the supported must be creative. Unless we come up with an extraordinary idea that takes full consideration of the aforementioned issues, the situation will grow tougher. As the world is entering the era of Pax Pacifica, Japan cannot afford to become an aging and declining country. I want Japan to be always full of original ideas, capable of giving shape to these ideas and systematically implementing them, and am looking very much forward to have a vision drawn for such a society."