Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

(Abridged)

Today, the Cabinet approved personnel decisions in relation to senior officials of ministries and agencies. This summer’s personnel decisions concerning senior officials at ministries and agencies will be the second such decisions since the establishment of the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs. Also, in order to achieve further results in the various policy issues being promoted by the Abe administration, the Government has sought to engage in thorough efforts to strategically allocate human resources to ensure that the ministries and agencies in Kasumigaseki as a whole employ the right people in the right positions. We believe that we have been able to establish such efforts. In terms of the main outcomes of these efforts, firstly, with regard to the appointment of women, as a result of focused efforts, including the appointment of Ms. Makiko Yamada, Executive Secretary to the Prime Minister, to the position of Director General of the Global ICT Strategy Bureau, almost all ministries and agencies now have women appointed to senior posts. In overall terms, the number of women in these posts has increased from 23 as of last summer to 30 this year. The Government has also decided to appoint Ms. Naoko Munakata, Director-General of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as an Executive Secretary to the Prime Minister. Through these efforts, it is expected that the Government will achieve its “three percent target” for the proportion of women serving in designated posts in summer this year, ahead of the original target date of the end of fiscal 2015. Furthermore, in order to eliminate vertically segmented structure in the Cabinet as a whole and execute measures from a broad-based perspective, the Cabinet Secretariat has led efforts to promote the allocation of the right people to the right positions, transcending conventional ministry and agency boundaries. As a result of these measures, personnel exchanges in senior official posts have risen by a further 13 people from last year, increasing from 139 to 152 persons, which represents one-quarter of all senior official posts. In addition, other measures have been implemented, including the assignment of officials to positions in fields that they may not necessarily have been initially employed to work in, in addition to bold placement of personnel, where following a Kasumigaseki-wide advertisement for candidates a person was appointed as a Counsellor in the Cabinet Secretariat. In any event, the Government will continue to strategically allocate human resources to ensure that the Cabinet as a whole employs the right people in the right positions.

(Abridged)

Q&As

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