Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended the first meeting of the Policy Committee on Persons with Disabilities held at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the draft for the way to carry forward the discussions on the new Basic Plan for Persons with Disabilities.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "Promotion of the reform of the system for persons with disabilities has been constantly addressed by the government as one of the important policy issues since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took over the government. Although we are only halfway to achieving the goal, the reform has been steadily progressing in these few years, with support from persons with disabilities.
Especially, the new discussion style of asking persons with disabilities themselves to actually participate in the discussion was established. I believe this was a groundbreaking movement to put the basic idea of bringing the insight of relevant parties, in other words 'Nothing About Us Without Us,' into practice.
The revision of the Basic Act for Persons with Disabilities last year was one of the achievements. This policy committee starting today now has legal grounds.
I would like to steadily carry forward the discussion by also asking for continuous participation by persons with disabilities.
The first issue this committee must address is the formulation of the new basic plan. I would like to uphold the concept of realizing a cohesive society wherein all persons, regardless of having disabilities or not, are respected as indispensable individuals and support one another.
I would like to ask the committee members to deepen discussions from broader perspectives, and to finish the basic plan so that its human warmth can be felt by as many people as possible."