The Cabinet held a meeting of the
headquarter for Japan’s economic recovery and officially approved the “course
of action of the growth strategy” to promote and accelerate the “third arrow”
of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policy dubbed “Abenomics” on Oct 1.
(1)
Points
in the “course of action for the growth strategy”
Abe had directed his Cabinet
ministers to finalize the “course of action” of the growth strategy on Sept 2
prior to the next extraordinary Diet session scheduled on Oct 15. The
government’s Industrial Competitiveness Council held intensive discussions and
drafted a “course of action (tentative)”, and the Cabinet this time approved
the course of action according to the document.
It entails
l Institutional
foundation for regulatory and institutional reform: National Strategic Special
Zones
l Promotion of private
investment and industrial renewal: tax reform to promote investment in
productivity and industrial reshuffle, promotion of monetary and capital market,
etc.
l Labor/employment
policy reform, college/university reform to enhance human resource capability
l Establishment of new
markets as Japan’s growth engine via regulatory reform and market opining:
Organization for Farmland Interim Management to mediate leasing of abandoned
farmland, medical-care market reform, power industry reform, etc.
l Promotion/innovation
of local economy and small- and middle-size corporations: meeting for local
industrial competitiveness as local version of Industrial Competitiveness
Council, promotion of new incorporation through partnership between municipal
governments and private, etc.
*“Course of Action of the Growth
Strategy” (Japanese only)
To tackle with these challenges,
the Cabinet plans to submit the following bills in the next Diet session and
seeks early passages of them.
² Bill to boost
Industrial Competitiveness
² Bill on National
Strategic Special Zones
² Bill on revision of
the Company Act
² Bill on revision of
the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act
² Bill to secure safety
of the Regenerative Medicine
² Bill on Power Industry
Reform
² Bill to establish an
Organization for Farmland Interim Management (tentative) and bill on
agricultural/forestry/fishery renewable energy
(2)
National
Strategic Special Zones
Amongst them, the particular
content (outline) of the National Strategic Special Zones, regarded as a
breakthrough toward the country’s “bedrock” regulations, is as follows.
I.
Accelerate
the structural reforms by threefold strategy of “strategic regional” “corporate”
and “national” levels.
①
Strategic
regional level: to promote drastic regulatory/institutional reforms in the
fields of medical care, agriculture, education, city planning, etc., in the
designated National Strategic Special Zones
Items
of regulatory reforms
Ø Relooking of land-use
regulations such as floor-area-ratio restriction and purposes
Ø Admission
of public schools to be managed by private organizations
Ø Establishment of international
medical center, relaxation of its bed-number regulation
Ø Expansion of medical
treatment not covered by the public medical insurance
Ø Exceptional measures
on use of buildings for accommodations
Ø Institutional design
to boost the agricultural competitiveness
Ø Etc.
②
Corporate
level: “exceptional measures on corporate evidence” to promote new industrial
frontiers by admitting exceptions to the existing regulations
③
National
level:
Ø Establishment of a “gray-zone
annulment” system which explicitly defines application of the regulations to
ease entries into new industries
Ø Further promotion and
acceleration of the national-level regulatory reforms by partnership of the
Industrial Competitiveness Council and the Regulatory Reform Council, especially
in the field of employment, medical care, agriculture, etc.
Prime Minister Abe stated in the
Industrial Competitive Council that the regulatory reform will be the
breakthrough to boost the country’s economic growth and stressed to promote
reforms in the fields of labor and medical care.
Yet, for the persistent
resistance of the Ministry of Health and Labor and the labor unions behind in
favor of the existing labor legislations and against relaxation of the
employment protection in particular, the “Course of Action” failed to entail
specific legislative measures regarding the labor and employment.
And some members of the
Industrial Competitiveness Council, insisting liquidation and mobilization of workforce
and diversification of labor, have given critical comments to the passive
attitude of the Ministry of Health and Labor (“Though there were certain
advancements in many bedrock regulations, it is unfortunate that there was no
progress in the field of ‘employment’.”: paper presented by Heizo Takenaka in
the Industrial Competitiveness Council on Oct 1).
Akira Amari, the minister
in-charge-of economic recovery, showed his view on Oct 1 that “it is needed to
let employment have certain flexibility” and stressed he will continue the
efforts toward relaxation of employment regulations, including the Special
Zones.
How much initiative and
leadership will Abe and Amari take over the content and extent of deregulation
in the rigid fields such as medical care or employment? It is a big test to Abe
and his Cabinet’s decisiveness toward regulatory reforms.
(Yoshiyuki KUROSAWA, PPPC Chief Researcher)
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