Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: I am Yoshihide Suga, and I have been appointed to take on the position of Chief Cabinet Secretary. Concurrently, I will be in charge of Strengthening National Security. I look forward to working with you all and will exert myself to the best of my ability endeavor to engage in my duties with sincerity and due commitment.

First of all, I would like to introduce Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries. They are Katsunobu Kato, Hiroshige Seko, and Kazuhiro Sugita.

Next, I would like to announce the members of the second Abe Cabinet.

(Announcement of the members of the Cabinet)

An investiture ceremony and attestation ceremony are scheduled to be held at the Imperial Palace today at 6:30 pm, and the Prime Minister is scheduled to have a press conference at 9:30 pm. The first Cabinet meeting is scheduled to be held at 10:15 pm.

Q&As

REPORTER: At the outset, what I would like to ask is that, with massive challenges abounded domestically and internationally, what kind of an approach will you as the core of the Cabinet take to manage the Cabinet now that you have been appointed as Chief Cabinet Secretary? Also, I would like to ask what is your role in the Cabinet.

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: First of all, the new Cabinet is a crisis-breakthrough cabinet. In this context, the Cabinet will indeed first work on achieving the reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and the revitalization of Japanese economy. I myself as Chief Cabinet Secretary will make every effort to set us all on a path towards one direction while underpinning the revitalization.