Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

October 22 , 2004

For the ''Program for Concentrated Consolidation of the Financial System (tentative name)'', which is scheduled to be formulated by the end of this year under the Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Structural Reform 2004, we have decided to form an advisory team consisting of experts, as my private consulting group aimed at widely seeking outside experts' opinions. Members of the team are the following five individuals:

Mr. Yasufumi Kanemaru, Vice Chairman of Keizai Doyukai, known also as the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, and President & CEO of Future System Consulting Corporation, for his expertise in the actual situation of IT; Mr. Takeshi Kimura, CEO of KFi K.K., for his expertise in financial and corporate finance strategies; Mr. Tomoo Tasaku, Director & Partner of PwC Advisory Co., Ltd., for his expertise in business recovery and corporate turnaround; Mr. Shuya Nomura, the head of the Compliance Office of the Financial Services Agency and professor at Chuo University law school, for his expertise in the financial legal system; and Mr. Shinji Mizukami, professor at the Finance Research Center of Waseda University, for his expertise in domestic and overseas financial capital markets. These five individuals are expected to be the participants. We hope they will give their broad opinions for the formulation of the Program for Concentrated Consolidation of the Financial System (tentative name) in the days ahead.