TOYODA Shoichiro
Chairman
Keidanren
Japanese are working to build a new economic society that encourages people to take responsibility for their own actions, promotes creativity, and enables them to express their individuality. To foster that kind of society, they are tackling such challenges as promoting deregulation, devolving power to local governments, reforming the bureaucracy, and creating a whole new social infrastructure. All of those reforms are interconnected. We must promote them collectively and organically.
Relocating government is an important start for reform. People have been talking about moving the capital for a long time. But talk has centered on the problem of overcrowding and on the need for disaster preparedness. Both of those concerns are important issues. But relocation has a value far beyond those concerns. It can be a proactive means of structurally reforming the Japanese economy. In fact, it can be the catalyst to revitalize the very spirit of the nation.
That is why we at Keidanren have made relocating government and decentralizing power the two pillars of our Program 2010, a project for reworking the fabric of the nation. That project is part of our long-range vision-A More Appealing Japan, Responsibility for Reform.
Japan's parliament, the Diet, is taking up the issue too. Last year, a Diet committee completed a final report on relocating the capital. In the current session, the Diet will take up a bill to set up the necessary apparatus to survey possible locations and select the best candidates. That opens the way to making the move a reality. And the spirit is catching on outside the halls of parliament. Symposiums are taking place throughout Japan to inform citizens of the benefits of reform.
We need to let people know in convincing and easy-to-understand terms how reform will better their way of life. Relocating national government functions is a perfect place to start, as it involves concrete and visible changes.
We at Keidanren are stepping up efforts to make our vision a reality. In that spirit, we continue to push for government relocation. At the same time, we will make the most of that opportunity to promote further governmental reform.