Fukuda Cabinet E-mail Magazine No.13 (January 10, 2008)
==============================

==============================

====

"Happy New Year. Let's make this a good year. This is Yasuo Fukuda."
-- Message from the Prime Minister (Provisional Translation)

Happy New Year. Let's make this a good year. This is Yasuo Fukuda.

How did you spend the New Year holiday? Besides attending
Their Majesties' New Year Reception at the Imperial Palace,
I enjoyed three quiet days with my family and relatives.

Japan will host the G8 Summit this year. On January 4, my first day
back at work, I unveiled the Summit logo mark.

The overarching theme of this year's Summit is that of global
environmental issues, such as global warming. The design that was
chosen for the logo mark is a motif of fresh sprouting leaves,
a collaborative work created by five high school students
from the Mie Prefectural Hokusei Kirara Gakuen School for Children
with Special Needs.

The logo expresses its creators' wish for "the Earth to forever
remain a beautiful planet covered in lush greenery." Rising above
the barrier of language, this motif is a powerful message
to the entire world.

Japan is a nation with an abundance of beautiful nature and
we boast the world's most advanced technology in the environmental
and energy conservation fields. I look forward to making this
Summit one that builds on these special strengths and I am sure
that we can succeed, with the cooperation of many people, in doing
so.

After unveiling the logo mark, I went to Ise Shrine. There, a local
reporter asked me if the fact that regulations governing food
labeling have been established by several ministries -- including
the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry
of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry -- has made it difficult for the people to understand
the issue.

Indeed, some parts of the administration are structured in a way
that, from the viewpoint of the people, may seem difficult
to understand.

As there are many different organizations in charge of similar
matters, you may easily get confused at which division to make
your inquiry. There may also be cases in which officials neglect
to specify the agencies to which inquiries should be redirected.
Given this situation, we have to acknowledge that the structure
of the administration has not been designed with the people in mind.

The pension issue, for example, has arisen as a result of various
problems that have piled up over a period of 40 years, including
the careless management of pension records, those being the vitally
important information about payments made by the people.
These problems occurred precisely because the administration
did not take into account the perspective of the people.

As Japan truly becomes an aging society, we must build toward
a safe and secure society. In order to do so, those in politics
and the administration must change their mindsets and
the conventional ways that things have been carried out,
and instead stand in the shoes of the people and the consumers.

My wish is to make 2008 the starting year of Japan's shift toward
becoming "a society in which the people and the consumers play
leading roles."

This year, I intend to tackle head on the major issues directly
affecting the people's lives, including the issue of incorrect food
labeling as well as pensions and other social security issues,
and steadfastly resolve them, one by one.

* Profile of the Prime Minister
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/hukudaprofile/index_e.html

voeux de M. Fukuda pour l'annee 2008

Partager cet article