Mr. Tetsuo Saito has been appointed on October 4th as the new Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan in the new cabinet led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Minister Saito held a press conference on the next day at the ministry’s headquarters in Tokyo. Mr. Saito stressed the importance of the role of the ministry which is responsible for protecting the lives and livelihoods of the people and is directly linked to economic growth and regional development. "I am determined to fulfill my responsibilities,” said the minister.

He also identified disaster response as the first priority, and expressed his intention to advance the five-year plan to accelerate measures for disaster prevention, mitigation and resilience. Minister Saito emphasized the need to secure the necessary and sufficient budget and take both tangible and intangible approaches to promote disaster prevention, disaster mitigation, and countermeasures against aging infrastructure.

Prime Minister Kishida has instructed the ministry to revive the tourism industry which was damaged by the pandemic, and to develop infrastructure to support prosperous rural areas, in addition to building disaster-resistant regions.

To integrate economic zones by linking local regions, the minister will work to eliminate missing links in high-speed rail and highways. Based on his experience as Minister of Environment in 2008 and 2009, he praised the government’s policy to achieve carbon-neutral society in 2050 as groundbreaking. He stated that the ministry, which covers a wide range of fields in land, sea, and air, should be a pillar to achieve the goal. In the private sector, energy conservation measures for homes and buildings will be strengthened. The ministry will also work with related ministries and agencies to promote renewable energy such as offshore wind power. (2021/10/06)