Newly appointed industrial revival minister Sadakazu Tanigaki pledged Friday to proceed carefully with his new mission, stressing the difficulty of balancing public and private forces in selecting viable companies.
Tanigaki, who also serves as state minister heading the National Public Safety Commission, made the remarks after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi formerly put him in charge of overseeing the establishment of the proposed, and tentatively named, Institution for Industrial Revival.
"I will be required to make extremely delicate judgments," Tanigaki told reporters, referring to his task of having to figure out to what extent the administration should be involved in revitalizing companies in a market economy.