Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Today, a Government-RENGO Summit Meeting was held from 9:45am. From the Government, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada, Minister of Finance Jun Azumi, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Yoko Komiyama, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano, Minister of the Environment Goshi Hosono, Minister for Reconstruction Tatsuo Hirano, Minister for National Policy Motohisa Furukawa, Minister for Civil Service Reform Masaharu Nakagawa, Senior Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Atsushi Ohshima, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tsuyoshi Saito, and I attended. From the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO), President Nobuaki Koga, Deputy President Hideaki Tokunaga, Deputy President Naomi Okamoto, five Vice Presidents, and General Secretary Hiroyuki Nagumo attended. Also, from the ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi and Acting Secretary General Shinji Tarutoko attended. At today's meeting, a broad exchange of views took place on future priority policy issues.

I have one other announcement. Today, the 29th meeting of the Information Security Policy Council was held. In light of the recent increase in information security threats due to cyber attacks and other causes, discussions took place on the revision of the set of Standards for Information Security Measures for the Central Government Computer Systems, the revision of the Second Action Plan on Information Security Measures for Critical Infrastructures, and the draft outline of Information Security 2012, among other matters. Regarding the outcomes of this meeting, please refer to the briefing of the National Information Security Center, which will be held after this.

Q&As

• Court's ruling on the case of former DPJ President Ozawa

REPORTER: This morning, the Tokyo District Court ruled that former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa, who was charged for violating the Political Funds Control Act, was not guilty. What are your thoughts on the ruling?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I have just learned about this from the news reports, and I am not yet aware of the details. At any event, from the standpoint of the Government, as this concerns an individual, specific case, I would like to refrain from expressing any opinion on the Court's ruling as the Chief Cabinet Secretary.

(Abridged)