• Japanese PM also calls on foreigners to visit Japan, stressing that guests from abroad will be treated with the maximum level of “omotenashi,” or hospitality

LONDON: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio, in a speech in the City of London financial center Thursday, called for active investment in his country while vowing to ease Japan’s border measures against the novel coronavirus.

Kishida said that he will work on doubling Japanese people’s income from assets and accelerating research and development for important sectors, including artificial intelligence and quantum technology, in order to realize his major goal of creating a new form of capitalism.

He asked foreign companies and individuals to invest in Japan with a sense of safety because the Japanese economy will continue to grow strongly. “Invest in Kishida,” the prime minister said. Kishida also called on foreigners to visit Japan, stressing that guests from abroad will be treated with the maximum level of “omotenashi,” or hospitality.

The Japanese government plans to ease its COVID-19 border measures further in June so that entry procedures will be implemented as smoothly as in other Group of Seven major industrial nations, Kishida said.

As a specific measure to realize a new form of capitalism, Kishida said that the government will increase investment in human resources, science and technology as well as innovation, startups, and green and digital technologies.

The government plans to thoroughly expand the Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) small-lot investment scheme and take other measures to help speed up a shift from savings to investment and double people’s asset income through investment, he added.

Kishida also showed plans to devise national strategies for five sectors — artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology, digitalization and decarbonization — and give substantial incentives to companies that increase related investment.

The government will take an integrated approach in attracting top foreign universities and venture capitals to Japan and promoting public-sector investment in venture capitals abroad, he said.

In the area of green investment, Japan will make effective use of nuclear power reactors for which safety has been secured, Kishida said.

For the successful implementation of these policy measures, Japan will conduct in an integrated way bold monetary policy, timely government spending and growth strategies, which have been inherited from the administration of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kishida said, suggesting that the Bank of Japan’s current massive monetary easing will be continued.

JIJI Press