Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Q&As

• The Government and the Bank of Japan's joint statement on further monetary easing measures

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Yesterday the Government and the Bank of Japan announced further monetary easing measures and released a joint statement. How does the Government view the financial world's response, including the response of the markets?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: Rather than commenting on the responses of others, I would like to say that the Government views these measures as a proactive move to break out of deflation. We expect that these measures will have a positive influence on the Japanese economy, including the stabilization of the market. Yesterday's joint statement demonstrates that the Government and the Bank of Japan are determined to together exert maximum effort to address that which the two entities commonly understand to be issues. Moving forward, the Government will without rest work to implement a second round of economic measures, which are scheduled to be finalized by the end of November, together with other macro-economic measures and structural reforms.

(Abridged)