Government and industrial leaders agreed Monday to work together to restructure excess capacity, create new businesses and promote labor turnover to improve Japan's industrial competitiveness.
The agreement was made at the first meeting of the Industrial Competition Council, a panel under the direct supervision of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. "I hope the private and public sectors will join hands in hammering out ways to achieve the economic growth of private demand," Obuchi told its inaugural meeting, held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
The commission brings together 17 top business executives, including Takashi Imai, chairman of the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), Hiroshi Okuda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., and Nobuyuki Idei, president of Sony Corp.