Prime Minister KAN's BLOG "Looking Squarely at the Future"

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"The beginning of a new Diet session and where we now stand"

The ordinary session of the National Diet convened yesterday. First
I delivered a Policy Speech in which I stated my thoughts regarding
issues that Japan simply cannot avoid addressing in the present day,
including economic partnerships and agricultural reform and also
reform of the social security system and associated fiscal
resources.

In fact, there is a graph that has been key in driving my sense of
impending crisis. Here as we are about to begin our discussions,
I would like to share this graph with you once more.

I would like you to take a good look one more time at the following
graph of the Japanese population, without saying, "Nothing new here."

We have now gone beyond the abruptly projecting peak and in
actuality all of us have now come to stand at the edge of a severe
precipice, at the point directly following where this inverts to
the downhill trend. Yet although we find ourselves at such a point
as this, all discussion is focused on the political situation of
"when will the Cabinet reach a deadlock?"

Here in the midst of a society with a shrinking population,
occurring for the first time since the dawn of Japanese history,
how shall we bring into reality a sustainable social security
system in which people can live without anxiety? I call on the
entire nation to discuss in the immediate future the substance of
policies in a serious manner.

* Shifts in Japan's Total Population (Graph)
http://kansblog.kantei.go.jp/p/p20110125e.jpg

* Policy Speech by Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the 177th Session of
the Diet
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/kan/statement/201101/24siseihousin_e.html

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