Press Conference by Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, December 13, 2013, 10:08 am to 10:27 am)

[Opening statement]

Today I would like to talk about the recommendations made by the Panel for Vitalizing Financial and Capital Markets and bilateral currency swaps. First, at the panel meeting just held now, I received the Recommendations for Vitalizing Financial and Capital Markets. The recommendations state that (1) Japan needs to utilize more of its financial assets, achieve growth integrally with other countries, and improve the productivity of individuals and corporations, (2) now is good time because expectations for Abenomics to deliver inflation are high, and also because Tokyo was selected as host city for the 2020 Olympic/Paralympic Games, and (3) it is important that the real economic activities, including manufacturing, and the financial sector enter into a positive cycle as two wheels of a cart. Based on this view, the recommendations consists of the following four pillars: 1. Establishing a positive cycle in which financial assets held by households etc. are allocated more to funding for growing businesses. 2. Realizing Asia’s growth potential and achieving integral growth of Japan and Asia. 3. Strengthening corporate competitiveness and promoting entrepreneurship. 4. Developing human resources and establishing a better business environment. The recommendations present specific measures to be realized in the next seven years, with a picture of 2020 in mind. The Financial Services Agency and the Ministry of Finance will continue to work to vitalize financial and capital markets.

[Questions and answers]

Q.

The Recommendations for Vitalizing Financial and Capital Markets contain various recommendations to be implemented by 2020. If there are anything that you are particularly interested in or want to focus on as Minister, please tell us what they are.

A.

One of them is the development of human resources, and I think this is very important. This is because to develop the industries and finance, particularly international finance, it will be important to develop human resources to support this. Manufacturing has been going on for years, and I think the Chicago Board of Trade was established in 1848, but there was already a rice market in Osaka around 100 years before that. Apparently, around two million koku of rice was traded in Japan, and records show that during a period of approximately two hours, 1.25 million koku were traded. So it’s amazing that margin trading of 1.25 million koku was already occurring in the 18th century. I think the fact that such a system was established ahead of the U.S. or Britain indicates that Japan has that kind of traits. Obviously, we will value our traits for manufacturing, but I think we also have to keep in mind that Japan has basically had a knack for finance since long time ago.

(End)