Hatoyama Cabinet E-mail Magazine No. 13 (January 8, 2010)

Yukio Hatoyama's "Yu-Ai"
-- Message from the Prime Minister (Provisional Translation)

Minister of Finance Hirohisa Fujii has offered his resignation
citing ill health and I have accepted his resignation. It is truly
unfortunate as I had hoped that he would nurture his child, the
fiscal 2010 budget, which he fathered. I wish from my heart that he
will take care of himself to return to health as soon as possible
and help us again in various ways.

I have just asked Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan to succeed him as
Minister of Finance.

The entire Cabinet will put forth all its efforts into implementing
the fiscal 2010 budget and tax system reforms in the most
expeditious manner possible.

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"A crucial year"

Happy New Year to all readers of the e-mail magazine.

As we greet the new year, I would like to convey to you my
resolutions and determination for this year.

The people's strong desire to change politics led to the change of
government last year, allowing us to finally come to the starting
line of a politics in which you, the people, will play the main
roles.

It has only been a short period, just over 100 days, since the
launch of the new government and there may be many ways in which we
are still lacking. However, I am sure that you already feel that
politics is changing through our actions such as abolishing
permanent vice ministers' meetings, a tradition symbolic of the
bureaucrat-led politics that had continued since the Meiji era, and
eliminating waste in the government's budget with the review of
government programs, which was conducted openly.




Now, we are at the real starting line. I have renewed my resolve
that as Prime Minister, I will return to my roots to create a new
kind of politics together with the people, a politics for the
people. This year will be the crucial year for this.

At the end of last year, we formulated the first principal budget
of the Hatoyama Cabinet, the fiscal 2010 budget, naming it
"a budget to protect people's daily lives." We did our utmost to
secure resources for protecting human life, such as for the child
allowance and free education at public high schools, as well as
employment, medical care and the environment.

We also made a Cabinet decision on the framework for a new growth
strategy. Up until now, policies have leaned toward companies (the
supply side). With the new growth strategy, however, we will change
this mindset to one that centers on the daily lives of the people
(the demand side), to shift toward an economy for people.

We will break from measures relying on public projects and public
finance, and policies based on market fundamentalism. Instead,
we will face the issues of the people's daily lives head-on and
resolve them, thereby creating new demand and employment.

The most important thing in doing so is to take advantage of
Japan's strengths.

First, we must advance technological innovation in the field of
environmental energy (green innovation) by utilizing Japan's
technology that we boast about to the world, with the aim to be the
number one environmental and energy technology power. Our goal is
to expand the environment-related market by over 50 trillion yen
and create jobs for 1.4 million people by 2020.

We will take the advance of the aging of society not as a risk, but
rather an opportunity to bring about a society of good health and
longevity. Through innovation in the field of medicine and nursing
care (life innovation), we will make medical, nursing care, and
health-related industries into growth industries, creating
a 45 trillion yen market and jobs for 2.8 million people.

We will build up the foundation of Japan's future by implementing
these policies that care for people, and changing Japan's politics.
This will indeed be a year in which politics will be tested on its
power to deliver.

Another major challenge is to make politics closer to the people.
I will firmly convey the Cabinet's policies and the philosophies
behind them in this e-mail magazine as I have in the past year. In
addition, I have started using Twitter and my blog this year as
means to communicate my daily activities and thoughts. Some of you
may already know about these, but I would be happy if you would
read them as well.

Politics does not belong to specific politicians. The people's
voices and opinions are the guiding principles of politics. We will
continue to actively provide information, even more so than before,
and for your part, I hope you will use every opportunity to voice
your opinions and be the driving force to change politics.

General Editor : Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
Chief Editor : Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno
Publication : Cabinet Public Relations Office
1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8968, Japan