[Opening remarks by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda]

Since assuming the post of Prime Minister in September of last year, I have pushed forward reforms from the public's viewpoint, aimed at changing politics and the administration in such a way that they put the people first. The reality of the situation, however, is that many of the people have yet to actually feel the benefits of such reforms in their everyday lives and, instead, a growing number of the people are finding it harder than last year to make ends meet, due to surging gasoline and food prices.

It goes without saying that the Cabinet should address and work on medium- and long-term policy issues, but paying attention to the people's everyday lives and listening intently to pained and anxious voices are also the basis of politics from the public's viewpoint.

In order to continue to strongly promote the people-oriented political and administrative reforms, along with other purposes, the new Cabinet lineup is primarily geared to realize policies that lead to perceptible improvements in the living conditions of the people. The mission of this Cabinet is to realize and carry out policies.

Prices for resources and energy are currently rising at an abnormally rapid pace. Given robust demand in emerging economies, this phenomenon does not seem to be a temporary one and we need to be prepared for the continuation of somewhat elevated price levels.

At home, we are witnessing an aging society with fewer children in absolute terms. The real issue of the moment is how to overcome these two major structural changes that Japan currently faces. The basic path to the resolution of this issue is to sustain economic growth into the future, thus expanding employment and increasing incomes. We must leverage the wisdom of the nation in order to transform the economic and social structures so they are geared to higher prices for resources and the aging society with fewer children.

First, in the era of global warming and surging prices for resources, we must realize economic growth that goes hand-in-hand with a low-carbon society. To that end, we need to change our lifestyles and accelerate the introdu