Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held the 2nd Ministerial Meeting on Response to Heavy Snow at the Diet building.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "The heavy snow this time has already led to the deaths of over 100 people, and is causing enormous damage across the country. The government has been providing livelihood support and recovery measures, including financial measures such as the advance provision of a portion of special tax grants and additional distributions of General Subsidies for Social Infrastructure Improvement.

In order to protect the livelihoods of the people given the expectation that heavy snow damage will continue to occur in the future, today I have gathered all of the relevant ministers to compile the 2012 Measures for the Response to Heavy Snow. Today we will discuss these measures, which will be composed of the basic policy for the response that should be taken by each ministry and agency.

I again request that based on this basic policy, moving forward each member of the Cabinet should exercise leadership and respond to this issue with a sense of urgency."