Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

• Personnel decisions regarding senior vice-ministers and parliamentary secretaries
• Further advocating awareness of information security

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: Personnel decisions for the positions of Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries will be made during the extraordinary Cabinet meeting to be held at 4:30 pm this afternoon. It is scheduled that the attestation ceremony will be held before the end of the day.

Information security has now become a common challenge throughout the global community and therefore cooperation and coordination with other countries is extremely important. With the aim of further advocating awareness of information security and providing international cooperation, the Government will run the International Campaign on Information Security in October. I ask that the public takes this opportunity to raise awareness and further promote information security measures. For more details on this topic, please contact the National Information Security Center.

Q&As

• The impact of the shutdown of the U.S governmental agencies
• The names of Japanese territories on maps
• The resolution of the United Nations Security Council regarding chemical weapons in Syria
• International Campaign on Information Security

(Abridged)

REPORTER: The U.S. Congress is yet to finalize a provisional budget and it is feared that governmental agencies will be shut down. This has resulted in the Nikkei Index experiencing a sharp drop in its value, while the yen gained against the dollar, reaching 97 yen to the dollar. There are now also fears over the impact the shutdown may have on the global economy. Could you share with us the Japanese Government's analysis of the current troubles in the U.S. and your thoughts on the potential impact on the global economy?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: As you just said, there are concerns for the potential impact that a shutdown may have on the global economy, and speaking from past experience, there have been periods in which some U.S. Governmental agencies were shutdown, such as in 1996 for 5 and 21 days respectively. Speaking from that experience, I understand that the shutdowns did not have an immediate impact on the actual economy, so I believe that recent developments will not have any significant impact. However, I do hope that the issue will be resolved as soon as possible.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Although specific names were not given, the Government has issued notifications to municipal governments, notifying them that some of the maps provided by an internet business operator contain names of Japanese territories in foreign languages that are counter to government policy. Does the Government intend to take any action against Google, who is the provider of these maps?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: In May this year, the Government instructed all ministries and agencies to pay particular attention, making sure when using electronic maps that names on those maps are consistent with Japanese government policy. As for the issue you just raised, the Government has communicated our consistent stance to Google Inc. So the Japanese version of Google Maps has been amended to be consistent with the government's policy. We are currently seeking amendment of the English version and if we discover similar issues elsewhere, we will communicate the consistent stance of the Japanese government.

REPORTER: The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding the abolishment of Syrian chemical weapons. As the civil war continues, could you share with us the Government's views?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: We are pleased that a tough resolution was adopted. We believe that it is extremely important that Syria takes it seriously and acts on the resolution.

REPORTER: I would like to ask a question concerning the handout distributed at the beginning of the press conference. It states that the Government will run the International Campaign on Information Security, but could you provide more details, such as instances of virus infection and leaks of personal information that prompted the Government to initiate the campaign?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: A number of issues have occurred to date. Those issues have become widespread throughout cyberspace and are the reason that the Government has decided to initiate the campaign to facilitate cooperation within the international community.

(Abridged)