Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2019
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Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2019 June 21, 2019 Cabinet Decision The content of the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2019 is as described in the Attachment. (Attachment) Basic Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2019 ~A New Era of “Reiwa”: Challenges toward “Society 5.0~ June 21, 2019 Outline of the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2019 (Table of Contents) Chapter 1 Current Situation of the Japanese Economy――― 1 1. Current situation of the Japanese and overseas economies and challenges 1) Current situation of the Japanese economy and challenges 2) Changing global economic environment and challenges 2. Direction of economic and fiscal management 1) Basic concepts 2) Challenges toward the new era: Acceleration to realize “Society 5.0” (1) Establish a system suitable for the age of “Society 5.0” (2) Virtuous cycle of economic revitalization and fiscal consolidation 3) Short-term economic and fiscal management, etc. 3. Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and other disasters 1) Reconstruction and revitalization after the Great East Japan Earthquake (1) Seamless support for affected people and revival of industries and livelihoods (2) Post-nuclear disaster reconstruction and revitalization of Fukushima 2) Reconstruction from recent natural disasters, acceleration of prevention and reduction of disasters and national resilience Chapter 2 Establish a System Suitable for the Age of “Society 5.0”―――――――――――――――――――――――― 12 1. “Action Plan of the Growth Strategy” and other measures to boost growth potential 1) Realization of “Society 5.0” (1) Improvement of rules for the digital market (2) Fintech/Finance (3) Mobility (4) Corporate governance (5) Smart public services 2) Reforms to Social Security System for All Generations (1) Securing employment opportunities up to the age of 70 (2) Promotion of mid-career hiring and experienced personnel hiring (3) Prevention of disease and nursing care 3) Reinforcement of regional measures under population decline (1) Maintenance of community infrastructure and competition policy (2) Supplying human resources to regions 2. Human resource development, work-style reform, promotion of measures to increase household income 1) Promotion of human resource development in accordance with decreasing birthrate and aging of the population (1) Free early childhood education and care (2) Reform of primary and secondary education, etc. (3) Making tuition fees of private high schools substantively free (4) Free tertiary education (5) University reform (6) Recurrent education (7) Measures to cope with decreasing birthrate, support for children and child-rearing (8) Promotion of active participation of women (9) Improvement of working conditions of long-term-care workers 2) Promotion of work-style reform 3) Promotion of measures to increase household income (1) Support program for the “employment ice-age” generation (2) Raising minimum wage 3. Promotion of regional revitalization 1) Correction of the monopolar concentration in Tokyo, creation of new movement of people to regions 2) Revitalization of regional industries (1) Revitalization of the tourism industry (2) Revitalization of agriculture, forestry and fishery industries (3) Regional revitalization by bringing vitality from abroad 3) Support for SMEs and microenterprises 4) Promotion of decentralization reform 5) Creation of a nation with mutual flow of people across regions 6) Development of Okinawa 4. Cooperation with the global economy and society 1) Commitment to sustainable growth at the occasion of G20 2) Promotion of economic partnerships, making the 21st century trade rules, such as TPP11, as international standards 3) Rules and framework of cross-border data flow toward expansion of the data-driven economy at international level 4) Contribution to environmental and global issues, with a focus on SDGs (1) Quality infrastructure investment (2) Coping with environment and energy issues including formulation of The Long- term Strategy under the Paris Agreement (3) Actions on marine plastic litter (4) Coping with global health issues 5. Initiatives for important policy issues 1) Promotion of regulatory reforms 2) Promotion of science, technology, innovation and investment (1) Promotion of science, technology and innovation (2) Promotion of public investment to boost and sustain growth potential 3) Acceptance of human resources from overseas and creation of a suitable environment (1) Promotion of smooth and appropriate acceptance of human resources from overseas (2) Development of an environment for the creation of a society of coexistence (3) Establishment of the residence management system for human resources from overseas (4) Promotion of employment of foreign students in Japan 4) Measures for successful implementation of large-scale international games, realization of a nation of sports, culture and art (1) Successful implementation of large-scale international games (2) Realization of a sports nation (3) Realization of a cultural and artistic nation 5) Natural resources and energy, environmental countermeasures (1) Natural resources and energy (2) Environmental countermeasures 6) Diplomacy and security (1) Diplomacy (2) Security 7) Safety and security of life (1) Disaster prevention and reduction, national resilience (2) Public order and the administration of justice (3) Crisis management (4) Consumer safety and security (5) Building a society of mutual assistance and coexistence (6) Improving housing safety net, etc. Chapter 3 Virtuous Cycle of Economic Revitalization and Fiscal Consolidation―――――――――――――― 73 1. Steady Promotion of the New Plan to Advance Economic and Fiscal Revitalization 2. Promotion of “Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reforms,” etc. 1) Efficient and high-quality administrative and fiscal reforms through next-generation administrative services (1) Enhancement of efficiency of administrative procedures through digital government (2) Promotion of efficient and effective budget implementation (3) Promotion of administrative reforms, including the EBPM (Evidence-Based Policy Making) 2) Reforms in major policy areas (1) Social security (2) Social infrastructure (3) Local public administration and fiscal reforms (4) Education, science and technology (5) Tax reforms, scaling back government assets and liabilities 3) Acceleration and expansion of policy efforts in expenditure reforms, etc. (1) Thorough implementation and expansion of “visualization” (2) Nationwide dissemination of advanced and good practices, etc. (3) Incentive reforms Chapter 4 Short-term principles in economic and fiscal management and guiding principles in budget formulation for FY2020―――――――――― 110 1. Short-term economic and fiscal management 1) Coping with the consumption tax rate hike (1) Measures to smooth demand fluctuations (2) Implementation of the reduced consumption tax rate schemes 2) Short-term economic and fiscal management 2. Budget formulation for FY2020 Chapter 1 Current Situation of the Japanese Economy 1. Current situation of the Japanese and overseas economies and challenges 1) Current situation of the Japanese economy and challenges In 2012 when the Second Abe Cabinet was inaugurated, Japan underwent economic downturn and deflation and amid decreased growth, intensified global competition and increased severity of the surrounding economic environment, the sense of stagnation and high level of uncertainty in the future prevailed among the Japanese people. For this reason, the Abe Cabinet placed economic recovery as the top priority policy issue and consequently succeeded in overcoming the deadlocked situation by strongly promoting and widely expanding the Abenomics. The current Japanese economy has created non-deflationary situation, sustaining long- standing economic recovery and both nominal and real GDP have reached their highest level. Significantly, the employment and income environment, which are closely related to people’s lives, improved as well. In terms of employment, despite the decrease in working-age population by approximately 5 million people in this six years, the number of employees has increased by approximately 3.8 million due to increasing labor force participation by women and the elderly. Also, backed by there, with highest level of corporate earnings continue, around 3.0% rise in the minimum wage has been achieved for the third straight year since FY2016 and the average pay rise for enterprises including small and medium enterprises has been standing at around 2% in the annual “spring offensive” wage negotiations, resulting in steady and continuous wage increase. The result of Abenomics has spread to all regions across the country and the effective ratio of job offers to applicants in all 47 prefectures has remained consistently above 1, maintaining the highest level since the statistics was first collected and compared to the economic recovery phase in the mid-2000, amid a sense of economic recovery throughout the country, the inter-regional disparity has been narrowing. Furthermore, the land price in the provincial areas has started to pick up for the first time since the collapse of the bubble economy and there are signs of virtuous economic cycle in the provinces. On the other hand, the exports and production are sluggish due to the slowdown in Chinese economy, etc. and as for their prospects, it is necessary to pay close attention to the downside risks including the effects of situations over trade issues on the world