Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I have one other announcement, which is that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will be visiting the Republic of Korea (Seoul) from Monday, March 26, to Tuesday, March 27 to attend the Nuclear Security Summit. At the Second Summit, discussions on the nuclear security field are expected to take place regarding the progress of the various countries' initiatives since the last Washington Summit, the vision of the initiatives for the future, the relevance between nuclear power safety and nuclear security, among other matters. This Summit, which will be held at this juncture of approximately one year after the nuclear power station accident, is also an opportunity for Japan to demonstrate our stance for contributing to raising the level of nuclear security in the international community, and we expect that the Summit will be fruitful.

Q&As

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Regarding the Nuclear Security Summit, while I'm not sure if the restarting of operations at nuclear power stations should be included, what does Prime Minister Noda intend to or expect to discuss with regard to Japan's future nuclear power policy? If this is known, can you share it with us?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Indeed, last year's nuclear power station accident was the foremost incident of its kind for Japan, thus we will share knowledge and experience learned from it. And although we are still at this moment in the process of conducting investigation, Japan will also share (the result of) the investigation which became available so far. We will also reiterate the clear resolve of Japan to enhance nuclear security. In addition, we will express our commitment to working closely with all countries while taking initiatives to advance the international efforts in response to the globalization of nuclear terrorist acts.

REPORTER: I have a question related to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. While March will be drawing to a close in one week, the deliberations on the bill to launch the Agency on April 1 have not yet started at all. What is the current position of the Government? It still hasn't given up hope on the April 1 launch of the Regulatory Agency?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: While there is certainly a question of whether it will be physically possible to launch the Regulatory Agency by the end of the fiscal year, the Government will be taking response measures based on the situation of the deliberations on the bill, all the while sorting out the problems, in order to ensure that no blank period (in nuclear regulation) is created until the Regulatory Agency is launched.

(Abridged)