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Report
No.240301 |
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- Domestic - |
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Abe Cabinet Launches and Matsuoka Appointed as Agriculture Minister The cabinet of Abe was launched on September 26, 2006. Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister appointed Mr. Toshikatsu Matsuoka as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (a member of the House of Representatives; hereafter indicated as (R) ). He has been serving as chairman of the Research Commission on Trade in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Products of Liberal Democratic Party. Other cabinet post appointments include Mr. Taro Aso (R) reappointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs. New appointments are as follows: Mr. Koji Omi (R) as Minister of Finance, Mr. Hakuo Yanagisawa (R) as Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Mr. Akira Amari (R) as Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Mr. Masatoshi Wakabayashi (a member of the House of Councillors; hereafter indicated as (C) ) as Minister of the Environment and Minister in Charge of Global Environmental Problems, Ms. Sanae Takaichi (R) as Minister of State for Gender Equality, and Food Safety, Mr. Yuji Yamamoto (R) as Minister for Financial Services (or "Make Challenge Again"), Ms. Hiroko Ota, a pick from private sector, as Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, Mr. Genichiro Sata (R) as Minister of State for Regulatory Reform. On September 29, Mr. Taku Yamamoto (R) and Mr. Masayuki Kunii (C) were appointed as Senior Vice Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, while Ms. Keiko Nagaoka (R) and Mr. Teru Fukui (R) were appointed Parliamentary Secretaries of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Soon after assuming the post of agriculture minister, Mr. Matsuoka assigned jobs to two senior vice ministers, i.e. the responsibility of export promotion to Mr. Yamamoto and the responsibility of bio-ethanol to Mr. Kunii. The most challenging farm policy issues are the multilateral trade talks under the World Trade Organization and how to deal with economic partnership agreement negotiations centered on free trade agreement, for which the advisability itself of entering into negotiations with Australia is being questioned. Agriculture minister Matsuoka underlined 'the posture of offence' during the press meeting on September 26 by saying that he "will make active participation in negotiations where chances are there to obtain [relaxed conditions for agricultural exports etc.] through give-and-take deals also in agriculture." The implementation of core farmer-centered non-product specific farming business stabilization measures will be tested as well, which are scheduled to be introduced from FY2007. In this connection, the minister showed willingness to finish up agricultural policy reform saying he "would seek substantive enhancement of productivity and increased incomes by realizing such farming business and production as are primarily conducted by core farming entities to which everybody is participating." In the meantime, outgoing agriculture minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, newly picked as chairman of Policy Research Council of Liberal Democratic Party, told the last press meeting that "Mr. Abe has a very good understanding of farm policy issues. I can give you 100% assurance about it," and emphasized the importance Abe cabinet attaches to farm policy. |
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