Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

• The overview of the extraordinary Cabinet meeting

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: I would like to give an overview of the extraordinary Cabinet meeting. Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries have been appointed as shown in the material in front of you. The attestation ceremony of the Senior Vice Ministers will be held from 7 pm, and a meeting of Senior Vice Ministers will be held from 9:50 pm. The letters of assignment of the Parliamentary Secretaries will be given out from 10:50 pm, and a meeting of Parliamentary Secretaries will be held from 11:05 pm. With regard to statements by ministers, Prime Minister Abe made a statement concerning the appointment of Senior Vice Ministers of ministries and agencies to concurrently serve as Senior Vice Ministers of Cabinet Office and other positions. The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology made a statement concerning personnel affairs relating to the heads of national university corporations.

Q&As

• The Appointments of Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries
• The Three Principles on Arms Exports

REPORTER: I see that the number of female Senior Vice Ministers, which I believe had been one before, has increased to four. Can you please explain what the aim of the personnel decisions was?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: With regard to the personnel decisions as a whole, the Prime Minister appointed the right individuals for the right positions in order to realize the three pillars which the Abe Cabinet is aiming for - namely, the revitalization of the Japanese economy, reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the implementation of a thorough crisis management system. At the same time, the Prime Minister has been asking relevant parties, including the business community, to promote women. In this context, the Prime Minister himself took the initiative to appoint four women as Senior Vice Ministers.

REPORTER: As for the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries, House of Representatives member Shinjiro Koizumi was appointed to concurrently serve as the Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office and the Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction. What was the reason for appointing Mr. Koizumi, and also, what are the expectations of Mr. Koizumi?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: From the time that Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi was the Director of the Youth Division of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he has been paying visits to the disaster-affected areas and making every effort for their reconstruction. The appointment was made in view of his performance.　At the same time, we wished him to have exposure to a broad range of issues, and therefore, assigned him in charge of economic and fiscal policy.

REPORTER: Regarding the appointment of Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi, did he ask to be or wish to be appointed to the post of Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: In making these personnel decisions, the party asked members what posts they would like to hold. I understand that this was one of them.

REPORTER: In connection with House of Representatives member Koizumi, he is in charge of economic and fiscal policy…

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The respective Parliamentary Secretaries for Reconstruction concurrently serve as Parliamentary Secretaries of Cabinet Office to gain exposure to a broad range of issues of the Cabinet Office..

REPORTER: Will Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi be tasked with a special role, for example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: That is not the intention. All three Parliamentary Secretaries for Reconstruction concurrently serve as Parliamentary Secretaries of Cabinet Office. Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi is one of them.

REPORTER: In your opening statement, you said that the Prime Minister made a statement concerning the concurrent posts of Senior Vice Ministers. Can you please elaborate a little further?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: These concern tasks within the Cabinet Office that Senior Vice Ministers will be in charge of concurrently.

REPORTER: I have a question regarding the post of Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction. Under the provisions of the existing law, I believe Parliamentary Secretaries for Reconstruction must in principle concurrently serve as Parliamentary Secretaries of other ministries and agencies. Moving forward, as you put efforts into reconstruction, is the Abe Cabinet considering revising the law to turn the post of Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction into a full-time post?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: We are now beginning to consider this issue. While the respective Parliamentary Secretaries for Reconstruction are now concurrently serving, it may be of critical importance to establish a full-time Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction. Two people, a Parliamentary Secretary and Senior Vice Minister, are in charge of each prefecture. Bearing this in mind, we believe that the time may have come to think about the need for establishing a new full-time post of Parliamentary Secretary for Reconstruction as one of the options.

REPORTER: I believe that would require revising the law. Are you considering revising the law as early as during the next extraordinary Diet session?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: As I just stated, two people are assigned to each prefecture. If the situation is such that they are unable to oversee the prefectures, then we had better act on this quickly. However, at this point in time, I believe this system of assigning two people to each prefecture is functioning. Nevertheless, in the future, I believe we will probably need to take into consideration such options.

REPORTER: Of the Senior Vice Ministers, Senior Vice Ministers Nishimura and Inoue have stayed in their posts. You had stated that there was a possibility that some people would stay in their posts if the nature of tasks they were in charge of need continuation. Can you once again explain the reason for deciding to retain those individuals?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: With regard to the Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries who have stayed on and retained their posts, these individuals are in charge of particularly vital issues such as reconstruction and TPP negotiations. In this sense, this was done for tasks for which their continuation was critically important.

REPORTER: In regard to the appointments of Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, you had said that recommendations from political factions would not be considered in any way. However, based on the results, faction members are saying that the appointments were made pretty much as they had hoped for. Now, perhaps they are simply talking tough but did the appointments just happen to coincide with the wishes of the factions? Or were the wishes of the factions indeed taken into consideration to some extent in coordinating with the party?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The wishes of the factions were not taken into consideration whatsoever. I believe if you take a look at the appointments, the numbers do not indicate that the wishes of the factions were taken into consideration. We received requests from the respective Diet members, and we assigned individuals to posts by giving priority to their skills and wishes. However, as the wishes were skewed towards certain areas, it was difficult to realize everyone's wishes. Nevertheless, in this context, we gave maximum consideration to Diet members' wishes in making the personnel decisions.

REPORTER: I have a related question. Earlier during the press conference, you stated that the key points of the personnel appointments were to ensure the realization of the three pillars of the Abe Cabinet and the appointment of women. Is my understanding correct that the decision to retain the Senior Vice Ministers was part of the efforts to ensure the realization of the three pillars?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The personnel decisions were made from the perspective of what was necessary to translate the three pillars into action.

REPORTER: Then is my understanding correct that the key points of the personnel appointments were these two points?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: In principle, the three pillars were the focal point. However, the appointment of women was also one of the pillars of the Abe administration, and this was also added to considerations.

REPORTER: Regarding this matter, leaving aside the role of factions, my question concerns the House of Councillors. I believe the House of Councillors has a kind of independence. Were the Senior Vice Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries from the House of Councillors appointed because there are posts reserved for House of Councillors members, or were the right individuals appointed to the right positions?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: There are posts which have continuously been held by members of the House of Councillors. Therefore, this was taken into consideration for these posts. However, it was the Government which decided on who to appoint for those posts.

REPORTER: Regarding the appointment of women, there are four female Senior Vice Ministers. While many of the other Senior Vice Ministers were appointed to their posts for the first time, with regard to the female Senior Vice Ministers, for example, Ms. Kamikawa has ministerial experience, and this is the second time for Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Matsushima to have a Cabinet position. In the case of the female Senior Vice Ministers, women who have previously held Cabinet positions have been appointed once again. What was the motivation behind this? Were there no other people?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: Among the people appointed, yes, there are naturally those who have no experience with holding Cabinet positions. However, with regard to the others, there are several posts for which people who have held Cabinet positions multiple times have been appointed. In selecting Senior Vice Ministers, the pool of people who have held Cabinet positions multiple times in the past is getting larger.

REPORTER: If I may return to the subject of House of Representatives member Koizumi. Every month, House of Representatives member Koizumi has been going to disaster-affected areas. However, I believe there is a difference between going there as one Diet member and having the duty to responsibly carry out reconstruction as a Parliamentary Secretary. Do you have any words of encouragement for him?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: As the Director of the Youth Division, Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi formed a team to visit disaster-affected areas, and he is very well in tune with the opinions of the people in the disaster-affected areas. As a Parliamentary Secretary of the Government, I expect that he will translate the wishes of the people in disaster-affected areas into action within the Government.

REPORTER: On this same matter, House of Representatives member Koizumi has a high profile and is also popular with the people. Do you have any hopes in terms of initiatives which leverage Mr. Koizumi's communication skills? Like holding press conferences?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The situation is exactly the same as for other Parliamentary Secretaries. However, with regard to disaster-affected areas, as I noted moments ago, I hope that Parliamentary Secretary Koizumi will leverage his experience with forming a team to go to disaster-affected areas when he was Director of the Youth Division now that he has executive power to realize policies in his Government position.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Minister of Defense Onodera, during his address on the 28th, expressed the view that the Three Principles on Arms Exports should be fundamentally reviewed. Is my understanding correct that the Government shares this view?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: Currently, the Advisory Panel on National Security and Defense Capabilities are holding meetings. I believe the Advisory Panel has been holding ongoing exchanges of views and discussions on the national security strategy and the national defense program guidelines from a variety of angles. I recognize that matters, such as the Three Principles on Arms Exports, are one of the future agenda items of the Advisory Panel and other committees.

(Abridged)