real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ), and the fixed - rate funds - supplying operation against pooled collateral. the total amount of the program will be about 35 trillion yen, consisting of about 5 trillion yen for purchases of financial assets and about 30 trillion yen for the fixed - rate funds - supplying operation against pooled collateral. the bank has already begun purchasing jgbs and corporate bonds, and the first auction for the purchase of cp is scheduled for tomorrow, december 10, 2010. the bank also decided to start purchasing etfs and j - reits in the near future. as the bank has been explaining, this is a temporary and extraordinary measure for a central bank. moreover, the bank did not adopt this measure lightly, since it entails the critical issue of making sure that the risks involved in holding various risk assets are properly managed in order to ensure the financial health of the central bank of japan. b. the bank ’ s measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth lastly, i will move on to talk about the fund - provisioning measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth, which the bank decided to introduce at the monetary policy meeting held on june 14 and 15, 2010. the measure supplies long - term funds at a low interest rate against eligible collateral to financial institutions in accordance with their efforts in terms of lending and investment toward strengthening the foundations for economic growth. japan ’ s economy faces the critical challenge of overcoming deflation and returning to a sustainable growth path with price stability. to achieve this, the key, in my view, is to tap potential demand, and both economic entities in the private sector and the authorities need to continue to make steady efforts to this end. the main cause of the current deflation is the negative output gap, which largely reflects a long - term downtrend in the economic growth rate since the 1990s. however, looking again at major trends such as demographic developments and globalization, can we really say that japan has nothing to gain from these trends? i do not think so. it all depends on one ’ s perspective. for example, demographic trends can be seen as a shrinking of the total and the working - age population, or they can be seen as an increase in the importance of the elderly. similarly, global warming is an issue that requires an immediate response, but even more important is a medium - to long - term strategy covering the next 10 or 20 years. regarding the fund - provisioning measure to support strengthening the

medicine, healthcare, and new energy sources. to capture growing global demand, particularly in emerging economies, it is important to both make efforts to increase exports and shift to business models that focus on local production for local consumption and the international division of labor and thereby increase revenues from overseas. however, a key point in this context is that if the shift to overseas production occurs gradually, this will allow domestic workers to transfer to other growing sectors of the economy, and therefore maintain employment levels in japan ; on the other hand, if the shift to overseas production takes place rapidly as a result of the appreciation of the yen or other factors, it will lead to a decline in domestic employment and thus be detrimental to the economy. moreover, with the working - age population decreasing, in order to boost the labor force – which in turn can sustain the newly created domestic demand – it is important to increase labor market flexibility to allow workers to change industries more easily and to boost labor market participation of the elderly and of women who wish to work but are not currently working. the second requirement for increasing the growth potential of the economy, as mentioned earlier, is to improve productivity in industries with significant potential for job creation. economic growth comes from increases in three factors : the number of workers, the number of hours worked, and labor productivity. therefore, in order to strengthen japan ’ s growth potential, labor productivity must be improved along with efforts to boost the labor force. during the two decades from 1990, the average annual rate of increase in labor productivity stagnated at around 1 percent. this is attributable to the shift of workers to service industries, where labor productivity growth is slow. according to a report by the japan productivity center, while labor productivity in manufacturing industries grew at a relatively high average pace of 2. 5 percent a year during the two decades, that in service industries – which have significant potential for job creation – grew by only around 1. 0 percent a year. at the same time, japan ’ s labor market structure changed, with the number of workers in manufacturing industries falling since the mid - 1990s, while that in service industries has been rising, so that bis central bankers ’ speeches service industries now account for 30 percent of workers in all industries. in particular, along with the aging of the population, there has been a notable increase in demand for services for the elderly, such as in the areas of healthcare and nursing care. this trend is expected to continue. therefore, the key to enhancing the