The United States fully supports Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ongoing reform drive and expects Japan to become the world's "economic engine" again, U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell told the prime minister on Monday.
Koizumi met with Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill at a Tokyo hotel on the sidelines of the Afghan reconstruction conference Monday morning.
At the outset of the meeting, Koizumi stressed his commitment to carry out structural reform of the Japanese economy while taking every possible measure to prevent a financial crisis from breaking out, according to a Japanese government official.