Following is the gist of remarks made by Mr. Takashi Imai, Chairman, Keidanren, at a scheduled press conference after monthly Chairman and Vice Chairmen's meeting on 14 May 2001. Translation is rush and tentative, and sequence of the gist does not necessarily coincide with words delivered.
(Asked on Prime Minister Koizumi, his 91% popularity rating and his policies)
Mr. Koizumi should have been surprised by the support he received at the Party Presidential Election and popularity voting on his cabinet. I am supporting his policy frameworks and hope to support him in days to come. His stress on "restructuring without a sanctuary" has been the key of Keidanren policy proposal for some time. In this line, I support him fully through all possible means. However, details of his policy outline are not yet visible. Many speculate that he will force his ways in the middle, but I think he is more realistic on that. In any case he should attempt to reform from wherever possible, my meaning to start from those issues not requiring the Diet debate, and then to those requiring the Diet debate at soonest possible occasion.
Regarding his privatization proposals on three postal operations (mail, savings more than twice larger than the largest bank of the world, and insurance schemes), his pointing the necessity of a public debate on how to reform the system makes sense. Fact of matter is that people enjoy the convenience of having 24,000 post offices around the nation. Perhaps adding several functions to them will lead to privatization movement.
I would also like to stress that restructuring of public agencies must be conducted. The work began under Minister Hashimoto and now Minister Ishihara is bowing to continue. Mr. Ishihara wanted helping hands from the business sector -- I am now considering how to meet his request. The government must devise a fair and transparent accounting standard for them. Making their account public will lead to a public debate over their fates, including privatization and scrapping.
I support Mr. Koizumi's proposed cap on issuing of the government bond at 30 trillion yen. The cap is a big target, but it's possible. To promote economic restructuring, and to further promote write-off of bad loans, supplemental budget could be formulated to cover social uncertainties that might arise as the result of expected rise in unemployment.
(Asked on Minister Yanagisawa's bad loan write-off policy proposals)
I am not disagreeing with him. We two are both looking for solving the problems. However, I am not yet fully knowledgeable about his policy proposals and I am going to learn that during this week. I can understand if his proposal is something like INSOL, but my guess may be wrong. I am supporting his objectives but how I can support him depends on how his policy will be laid out.