Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura

• An overview of the Cabinet meeting
• The Cabinet decision about the recipients of the 2012 Autumn Conferment of Decorations and Conferment of Decorations of Foreign Nationals, and the FY2012 Order of Culture
• The Government and Ruling Parties Council on the Formulation of the Budget

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I would first like to give an overview of the Cabinet meeting. The meeting approved two general measures and personnel decisions. With regard to statements by ministers, the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications made a statement concerning the findings of the administrative evaluation and monitoring of measures to prevent harm caused to wildlife, as well as the results of the labor force survey and the household budget survey. The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare made a statement concerning the national ratio of jobs to applicants for September 2012 and on the FY2012 Child Abuse Prevention Promotion Month. I made a statement concerning the 2012 Autumn Conferment of Decorations and Conferment of Decorations on Foreign Nationals and the FY2012 Order of Culture. The Minister of Finance made a statement concerning the bill on special provisions concerning issuance of government bonds. Minister Nakatsuka made a statement concerning the FY2012 Child and Youth Development Support Enhancement Month.

In ministerial discussions following the Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Okada made a statement concerning the Basic Guidelines on Measures for the Smooth and Appropriate Application of the Consumption Tax and Price Labeling, as well as on the system for the preparation and disclosure of the transcripts of Cabinet and other meetings.

Next is about the recipients of the 2012 Autumn Conferment of Decorations and Conferment of Decorations on Foreign Nationals and the FY2012 Order of Culture decided at today's Cabinet meeting. They will be announced on November 3. The total number of recipients and the breakdown by decoration are as stated in the material which has been distributed to you. For details, I ask that you direct your questions to the Decoration Bureau of the Cabinet Office.

Next, I would like to speak about the meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties Council on the Formulation of the Budget that was held. This Council was established for the Government and ruling parties to advance concerted efforts to formulate the FY2012 (2013) budget with a view to achieving the revival of the Japanese economic society. The Council will review, among other items, the special priority and priority requests pertaining to the measures related to the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rebirth of Japan in order to eliminate any duplication and examine ways to prioritize budget allocations. At today's meeting, the members of the working-level council were decided. In addition, the Prime Minister instructed the working-level council to, among other items, review items for which priority requests were made in the special priority request fields of green; life; and agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and for each field, select specific items for which budget allocations should be made with priority. For details, please forward your questions to the office of the Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary.

Q&As

• The Government and Ruling Parties Council on the Formulation of the Budget
• The Nuclear Regulation Authority's partial revision to the simulation results of the dispersion of radioactive materials

REPORTER: I would like to ask a question concerning the Government and Ruling Parties Council on the Formulation of the Budget. Minister Maehara and others emphasize quite a bit that the budget should be formulated through political leadership. Is this notion being shared within the administration? Also, if you are emphasizing political leadership, then what kind of criteria do you have in mind as a scheme for formulating the budget?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Since the change of government, the basic policy has been to formulate the budget through a top-down approach by way of political leadership. This year's budget formulation, too, will set out a major vision through political leadership. This was confirmed through a Cabinet decision. That is, through this Cabinet decision, members of the Government shared this recognition. This is my first point. Secondly, to do this, the Government and Ruling Parties Council was established, and furthermore, beginning from tomorrow the working-level council which was established under the Council will be working on this persistently. We would like political leadership to be demonstrated with the Government and ruling parties working together. That was the way forward that we agreed upon.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) made a partial revision to the results of the radiation diffusion forecasts that it had released. What are your views on this, and how will this impact relevant local governments?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: NRA is an independent committee. While it had released a simulation of the dispersion of radioactive materials, I understand that there were some errors. I believe yesterday there was an apology. Nevertheless, this is extremely regrettable. Moving forward, this data will be used by local governments as reference information for establishing their local disaster management plans. Given that this data is of very high interest to local governments, including municipalities, NRA will be giving further explanations at tomorrow's regular meeting. The Government wishes that NRA provide sincere and careful explanations to local governments in order to ensure that there is no further confusion.

REPORTER: I would like to ask a question in regard to NRA's forecast map. While I understand that this is an independent committee, how was the announcement of these dispersion forecasts communicated to you or the Government in the first place?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: While I can only speak for myself, I was not aware that this was being done until immediately prior to the disclosure. I believe there was coordination going on at the working-level.

(Abridged)