Following is the gist of remarks made by Mr. Takashi Imai, Chairman, Keidanren, at a press conference following Keidanren's annual general assembly on 25 May 2001. Translation is rush and tentative, and sequence of the gist does not necessarily coincide with words delivered.
(Asked how he reviews his three years as chairman and looking towards the next year)
What I have been doing can be summarized as road paving. I think now companies are free to concentrate on their profit centers. What remain now are the bad loan of financial institutions and overcapacity of suppliers.
Another important point of what remains is to prevent social securities burden rising above taxes, which needs, without doubt, a thorough reform. Keidanren will propose a policy what is permissible to the business sector. Based on that, I hope, the nation can debate on the fate of social insurance scheme. And I hope, through such policy implementation, excessive savings of this country will go more towards consumption and investment, even though I believe one year is too short to see the result.
The third important thing is to distinguish the role of business and the government, as proposed by Prime Minister Koizumi. This is especially so on government-sponsored institutions and postal operations (post, savings and insurance).
(Asked on the state of Japanese economy)
I have a very gloomy view. Situation has been worsening since February. The government forecast for the fiscal 2001 is 1.7% but I doubt this. We have also learned during the past decade that public works cannot work well. Now is the time to implement reforms to earn moral support of the nationals and the business. Unless something terrible would happen, I believe reforms should go before economic recovery.
(Asked on what business should do to in supporting Mr. Koizumi's reforms)
Companies should initiate their own reforms, especially to reduce bad loan and excess facilities. Business should ask the government only to pave ways to vitalize their everyday operations. This, in fact, is in line with what Mr. Koizumi has been saying, especially on the role of Para-governmental organizations and local government finances. To make him achieve the target, he should win in the July election.
(Asked on whether he supports nationalization of weak financial institutions)
By law, it is possible. The law says that the government can convert their preferred stock holding into ordinary stock, and the government holds a large share of several banks. Therefore technically it is possible but whether or not the government would do so is a completely different question -- there is a very low probability for the government to actually take such measures.
(Asked on how he views Europe and Japan discussing Kyoto protocol without the U. S.)
I personally believe that without the U. S., no target can be achieved. However, it should be clearly understood, that Kyoto protocol's cosignatory are governments, not businesses.