The serious damage by the huge earthquake in China came as a great grief. Everyone who suffers the hardships in the natural disaster has my deepest sympathy. Quick recovery is a matter of great urgency.
Keidanren is in action. Our fund-raising activity has started, hoping that the purse of 300million yen and more from our member companies will contribute to the aid to people in trouble and restoration activities.
The problem is that the system still depends heavily on contribution from younger generation and its sustainability is a big question mark. More public money should be used for the health insurance scheme.
When reviewing the system, some measures to reduce burden of lower-income people should never be missed.
It is necessary to take consumption tax raise into consideration when discussing the resource to sustain social security system. The new rate and time to raise the tax should be decided in the upcoming debate on comprehensive tax reform.
Generally speaking, Japanese companies' corporate governance is never inferior to that of European and American companies'. Whether corporate governance works or not depends on executives' sense of mission. It doesn't matter what corporate governance system should be adopted. It is important for Japanese companies to enhance understanding of investors through enriching their IR activities if any misunderstanding exists among them.