Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised on Monday to take “unprecedented and bold” measures to ease pain felt by households and businesses due to a possible rise in electricity bills.

“We’re facing a national crisis,” Kishida said in a policy speech before both chambers of parliament, citing soaring energy and food prices and a worsening security situation.

“Economic revitalization is the top priority,” Kishida said, promising to address soaring prices and a weaker yen, ensure that businesses continue raising wages, and promote investments and reforms to facilitate growth.

Kishida delivered the speech on the opening day of a 69-day extraordinary parliamentary session, the first opportunity for full-fledged debates between ruling and opposition lawmakers since the July election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

On soaring prices, Kishida pledged to “directly ease the heavier burdens on households and businesses” as electricity bills are likely to continue rising due to the impact of the prolonged war in Ukraine.

He promised to leverage the yen’s depreciation to promote foreign tourism in Japan.

The government will greatly relax the country’s COVID-19 border control measures to achieve over 5 trillion yen annually in spending by foreign travelers.

For wage growth, Kishida promised to invest 1 trillion yen over the next five years to encourage workers to learn new skills to help them move to growth sectors.

“It’s a structural problem that people are not getting paid more,” Kishida said.

He said that guidelines will be drawn up by June next year to encourage shifts in workforce to growing companies and industries.

On investments and reforms for growth, Kishida said the government will compile a five-year plan to boost the number of startups in the country by 10-fold.

He also said the government will work squarely on restarting idled nuclear reactors to accelerate carbon reductions.

The prime minister said he will listen well to the opinions of the people with regard to the issues of the state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Unification Church, a religious group that has come under the spotlight after the shooting of Abe in July.

“An attitude of listening to tough opinions is my starting point as politician,” he said.

Kishida said, “We’ll review rules and laws related to consumer contracts” to protect people from dishonest business practices.

The Unification Church has been criticized for selling goods to members at high prices.

Enhancing Japan’s defense capabilities will be a major political focus in the months to come as the government plans to update its security strategy and assemble a fiscal 2023 budget late this year.

Kishida said the government will consider what is needed to protect citizens.

On Japan’s relations with Russia, Kishida said, “We’ll stick to our policy of resolving the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty.”

The dispute over four Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands claimed by Japan prevents the two countries from signing a World War II peace treaty.

On a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kishida promised to speed up vaccination rollouts to enable social and economic activities as close to normal as possible.

He also pledged to prepare for future outbreaks of infectious diseases.

He said the government will submit a bill to reallocate 10 seats for electoral reform for the House of Representatives, parliament’s lower chamber, swiftly during its current session.

JIJI Press