Administrative Reform Minister Masaaki Taira expressed a willingness Thursday to adopt steps U.S. business mogul Elon Musk would take to boost government efficiency after Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Musk, named by the U.S. president-elect to head a new Department of Government Efficiency, is expected to take "a pretty drastic approach" to cutting government spending, Taira said at the outset of a two-day fall review session for national programs.
"We will closely follow the approach and incorporate it into our administrative reform efforts," he noted.
Taira also said the government's current fiscal health makes it urgently necessary to efficiently use limited resources. "We should improve convenience for citizens and improve administrative efficiency in an integrated way," he stressed.
The review covers nine programs, including the education ministry's scholarships for foreign students and the Reconstruction Agency's subsidies for revitalizing areas in Fukushima Prefecture hit hard by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
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