Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Since last week, functional enhancements have been gradually made to the (Japanese) website of the Prime Minister's Office, from the viewpoint of disseminating the policy information of the government ministries more clearly to the people, including information about the initiatives for the reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Starting from today, this renewed website is in full operation. I would like to introduce two points.

The first is the launch of the "Policy Information Portal Site." If you look there, you will be able to search for policy information of all the ministries all in one place. As is also shown on the monitor screen, this site allows the policies of the ministries to be searched by four approaches: "What's New"; "Keyword"; "Ministry"; and "Theme." If you can please look at the monitor. For example, if you go to the theme, "Living," and select "Food poisoning prevention" from "Food safety," it will give you a list of policies across the ministries concerning "food poisoning prevention." There is no need to look at the website of each ministry each time. This website will allow information on individual policies across the Government to be searched without leaving out any information.

Also, the "Prime Minister's Office Kids Page" has been established to provide easy to understand explanations for children, including explanations of the Prime Minister's work and the policies of the Cabinet. As is shown on the monitor screen, the page includes a virtual tour of the Prime Minister's Office and other creative efforts for children to be able to have fun while learning.

In addition, on this occasion, the top page of the Prime Minister's Office website and the reconstruction website, among other sites, have renewed their design, making them more accessible and user-friendly. I hope everyone will take advantage of the sites.

For details on this, please direct your questions to the Cabinet Public Relations Office.

Q&As

• Websites of the Prime Minister's Office
• The Frontier Subcommittee
• The presidency of the Japan Medical Association

REPORTER: Regarding initiatives that cut across the ministries and agencies, including this portal site that you announced a moment ago, I would be grateful if you could please briefly describe the background, such as who took the lead in proposing them and the initiative to carry them out.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Since last year, the Cabinet Public Relations Office has been making various considerations in terms of making the website of the Prime Minister's Office easier to use. For example, recently, I reported about the launch of the Chinese version of the website. The question was not so much how to increase access to the website. I understand that (the renewal) was the result of forward-looking exchanges of views.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: This evening, the Prime Minister is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Frontier Subcommittee. My impression is that the Prime Minister has been investing considerable energy into orchestrating the discussions. Does the Prime Minister have any ideas in mind as to how he would like to leverage the discussions of the Frontier Subcommittee moving forward?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I understand that recently as well, on March 25, I believe, the Prime Minister and the members of the Subcommittee exchanged views quite candidly. At this evening's meeting of the Frontier Subcommittee, each panel will report on the issues they have come up with, and discussions will take place toward compiling a mid-term report, which is scheduled for around mid-May. This mid-term report compiled around mid-May will then be reflected in the Strategy for Rebirth of Japan, which will be submitted in mid-year. That is one scenario.

REPORTER: I have a question on a different matter. Yesterday, an election was held for the presidency of the Japan Medical Association, and the presidency newly went to Dr. Yoshitake Yokokura, who seeks to work both with the ruling and opposition parties, from Dr. Katsuyuki Haranaka, who had been making clear that he had the support of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). What is your view on this as a member of the Government and the DPJ?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: The Government has nothing to comment on in particular regarding an election to select the head of a private organization.