Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Q&As

• The convening of the 183rd Session of the Diet and Policy Speech by Prime Minister Abe to the Diet
• Verification processes by the government on the incident involving Japanese nationals in Algeria

(Abridged)

REPORTER: The Prime Minister has given his policy speech to the Diet today. Please tell us how you would evaluate the contents of the speech. Also, during the course of the speech to the House of Representatives there was no heckling, but in the House of Councillors there was a great deal of heckling to be heard. How do you perceive these reactions?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: I believe that the policy speech conveyed to the people of Japan the thoughts of the Prime Minister concerning measures he has spoken regularly about, namely the three points concerning economic revival, reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and crisis management. I was also surprised myself to see the large number of ruling party seats in the House of Representatives, and against this backdrop, together with the fact that the Prime Minister was delivering his policy speech, there was a pervading feeling of enthusiasm. With regard to the House of Councillors the reality is that the balance between the ruling and opposition parties is reversed, therefore the Prime Minister and others had braced themselves to provide a thorough and sincere explanation of Government policies, focusing on the importance of seeking the understanding of other parties.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: On the subject of Diet proceedings, does the Government intend to narrow down the bills to be submitted, including those relating to the budget, for example?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: With the understanding of the ruling and opposition parties we are seeking to achieve the swift passage of a supplementary budget and also next year's budget that together will cover a 15-month period and prioritize economic revival and reconstruction. This is our priority and therefore I think it is natural that various related bills would be narrowed down for this purpose.

REPORTER: On a related note, with regard to the bills relating to the establishment of a Japanese National Security Council (NSC), is it not the case that by some means or another these must be passed during the current Diet session?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The Government intends to consider what to do with the bill for the NSC based on considerations of the recent incident in Algeria and also taking into account the opinions of the expert meeting which the Government has been planning to convene to consider this issue.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: With regard to the incident in Algeria, an all-ministry verification commission will be implemented from now... (abridged) ... when do you think this commission will reach a conclusion?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: Basically it is the case that this issue will be examined by various ministries and agencies at the director-general level and by those who were on the ground. I expect that this process will take approximately one month. The Government wishes to proceed with the verification with a due sense of urgency.