Press Conference by Minister Saito (Excerpt)

*Note: This is a provisional translation for reference purposes only.

11:48 to11:57 a.m.
Friday, September 6, 2024
The courtyard-side lobby of the METI Main Building

Opening Remarks

Good morning. I would like to mention three points.

Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Energy

The first point is about the Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Energy, which was convened earlier today.
In response to remarks made by the Prime Minister at a meeting of the GX Implementation Council last week on August 27, the Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Energy was convened. The Ministerial Meeting was held in order to ensure a whole of government approach to addressing the concerns of the local community in relation to the restart of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station in Niigata Prefecture, mainly regarding evacuation measures, as we concretely respond to the voices of concern raised over the fact that Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) was responsible for causing the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS).
For my part, in order to address various issues including the vulnerability of the electricity supply structure in eastern Japan, the difference in electricity rates between eastern and western Japan, industrial competitiveness, and economic growth, I provided explanations about the need to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station and efforts to obtain the understanding of the people in the prefecture, and the policy for dealing with the requests from the local residents with respect to matters such as the guidance and supervision undertaken by TEPCO.
The Prime Minister instructed relevant ministers, including me, to provide sufficient and careful explanations to the people in the prefecture, strengthen the dissemination of information, provide guidance and supervision to promote the strengthening of the preparedness toward continuing voluntary improvements by actively incorporating external perspectives with the goal of restoring trust in TEPCO, and consider a monitoring system that will deliver peace of mind to the people in the prefecture. He also instructed the ministers to closely cooperate with each other so that the entire government can take additional specific measures to obtain further understanding from the local residents in light of their concerns and requests, including the request for the promotion of regional development. We will continue to work together with relevant ministries and agencies.
As for the policy for addressing the requests that was confirmed at the meeting earlier today, we dispatched Director-General for Energy and Environmental Policy Yamada Hitoshi to Niigata Prefecture to provide explanations to relevant local governments. We will continue to deal with this matter carefully while taking into consideration the actual circumstances of the residents to obtain their understanding toward restarting Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station.
Let me get back to the one point that I failed to mention in the statement. That is, the Prime Minister instructed relevant ministers, including me, to act quickly to develop and strengthen the preparedness for nuclear disaster management. That is all I have to say about the first point.

Authorization of a plan for securing the supply of storage batteries under the Economic Security Promotion Act

Second, today, based on the Economic Security Promotion Act, we authorized 12 plans for securing the supply of storage batteries. Based on the authorization, we will support capital investment and technology development related to storage batteries, battery parts, and manufacturing equipment. The plans authorized at this time are domestic investment plans worth approximately one trillion yen, and the government plans to provide up to 350 billion yen in subsidies for those plans.
Regarding on-board storage batteries, we will support plans by Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd. to cooperate with Subaru Corporation and Mazda Motor Corporation , and also plans by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION  Group. We hope that through those plans, Japan’s storage battery supply chains and the competitiveness of storage battery industry will be strengthened. As for specific details regarding these items, the administrative staff will provide a briefing.

Visit to Osaka

Third, I am scheduled to visit Osaka tomorrow, September 7. During the visit, I am scheduled to inspect Nakanoshima Qross, which is a hub for the industrialization of regenerative medicine. I will exchange opinions with pharmaceutical startups clustered at the hub. Japan has produced excellent research results in regenerative medicine including iPS cells and we anticipate significant future market expansion. I would like to get a firm grasp of what makes a pharmaceutical startup ecosystem hub that can develop the most advanced regenerative medicine technology and deliver the benefits to patients around the world successful.
I will take advantage of this visit to develop policies for quickly putting Japan’s excellent research results to practical use in the domestic and foreign markets.
I will end my remarks here.