Taro Aso & Yasuo Fukuda, LDP Presidential Candidates
2007 Sep 19 12:30 - 14:00
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Opening Statement
By Taro Asosuch a deja-vu, bringing me back to twenty, thirty yearsago.
1

Thank you very much for inviting me. To save time, I will
give you my opening statement in English. I will thenanswer your questions in Japanese.
I will talk about my economic policies, and foreign policies.
But first, may I say this.

Many times, I have talked on my policies. You are the ones,
among the first ones, who know what I stand for, onJapan's directions, and on Japan's policies.

Had I not chosen to run, there was absolutely no election.
People in Japan could not have heard any policy debate.

My hope is, that my fellow members of the party would
choose their leader based on what they believe in.

This race, ladies and gentlemen, is about an Old LDP
versus a New LDP.

I say this, because now is the time for Japan to need astrong leader, a reliable leader that leads the machine in
Kasumigaseki, not the one, who is tempted to be led by
the very machine.

You saw an Old LDP gathered force overnight. It wasthat.
How do I want to do this?
Three points, here.

We must do them and do them now.

Number one:
to fill the gap between the rural and city economies.

And to do it you need a leader, a kind of leader, who canencourage and inspire the people with his vision, and leadthem with his guts.

Number two:
to seek growth and lead the nation just like turning arounda company.

I have already spoken a bit on my domestic agenda.

And number three:
to fix the pension scheme and to provide people withhope for the future.

It is to unleash the tremendous potential the people inJapan have, because I have never lost faith in how they canturn themselves around and to grow.
And by the way, given the size of Japanese economy thatis bigger than China, Russia, and India put together, a
2.5% growth of Japan can create an entire Singapore. And
I see no reason as to why you cannot be optimistic on

Now, to bring the local economies back into growth, what
is to be done?
You need no roads that lead to nowhere, or bridges thatconnect nothing.

2A massive devolution, that gives power to the local
governments: A complete reconstruction of the pension
scheme: And a set of policies that would give
“entrepreneur spirit” once again to the Japanese to drive
the economy...

Chief.

I will change the tax system in order for it to happen.

Back then, to do anything involving administrative
procedures, you had to give the government, local or
central, documents in paper form.

In other words, I will push forward a massive devolution
process that Prime Minister Koizumi wanted to do, and I
for one started to do as Interior Minister.

I counted the number.
It turned out, 52,100 kinds of actions needed paperwork
to be sent, or to be handed to the government.

How about seeking growth?

I changed all that, by introducing just a single bill, “Bill
Number 151 in the year 2002”.

You need an eye of a seasoned manager to see where thefat is and to find the first string to be pulled to makechanges happen.

Now, you can do everything on-line. You don't have toshow up at the local government office. You click on yourcomputer, and you are all set.

Mr. Koizumi found the string in the postal saving system.

Here is an example.

That is what structural reforms are like. It is to reduce thecost of Japanese economy, enhancing your profitability,
giving more to the shareholders, paying more to theemployees.

This is what I did five years ago when I was LDP Policy

And on the pension scheme, I will ensure that each andI shall continue deregulation in a more effective way.

3

But you need to give more, much more freedom to local
governments for them to build their economies bythemselves.

That is to assure them, that they can have hope for thefuture.
Now, ladies and gentlemen,
I have never lost hope in what the Japanese can do.
On foreign policies, I will say a couple of things.
But I see absolutely no need to speak on Japan-US ties.
The importance of which is self-evident, and will it
remain so.

On Asia, I shall waste no time, to deepen relations with
Asian countries.
From Seoul to Beijing, to Singapore to Delhi, many
opportunities await us.
I must also remind you, that I was the first JapaneseForeign Minister, who said openly, that I should welcome
the rise of China.
Recently, they say in newspapers that Mr. Li Zhaoxing,
former Chinese Foreign Minister, and I had a small talk in
an unlikely place of a men's room and that paved the roadfor Japan and China to mend the fences.
I must admit that THAT was actually the case.

Furthermore, they have never been stronger than they arenow.
If you are interested, you can see how I view the US in myown essay, entitled, “I and America”, in a book I
published a couple of months ago.

I have just revealed a state secret, but I feel very proudthat Mr. Li and I got along very well indeed.
For Japan, few other countries are more important thanthe PRC. Good relationships are vital. I am glad to seethat thanks to Prime Minister Abe, the ice between Japan4

every man and woman gets a notice from the government
so that he, or she, can have a clear picture about what isgoing on in their pension.

and China has melted away.

Peace and happiness, ladies and gentlemen, always
proceed in tandem with economic prosperity anddemocracy.
That is what is happening in this part of the world, fromIndonesia to China.
I see that, actually happening almost everywhere, from
Cambodia to Kazakhstan, from Georgia to Latvia.
Japan's presence, if it was in those places, could surely
make a difference, for as I said here nearly two years ago,
Japan is a “been there done that” nation, as she has had
both good times and bad, successes and failures.

Last,
without the hard work of the Japanese men and women in
the SDF, without the dedication and discipline they
showed on the soil of Iraq, and in the ocean off India, wecould not have come this far.
The respect they have gathered from their colleagues inNATO and US forces has been for me a source oftremendous pride.
I shall not turn the clock backwards, on the foreign policy
front, on the domestic front, and within my dearest party.
Thank you very much.
END

And it is from this belief, I worked with the people at theMoFA, to hammer out a new initiative to create an Arc ofFreedom and Prosperity.

5I must remind you also that I am very much bullish on thefuture of China.

But please do not forget, you may say that that is mysignature policy, the fact is, it is everyone's, because it isJapan's policy.