TOYODA Akio, Chairman Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc.

The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week was an attack on democracy and must not be tolerated. We, JAMA, would like to express our deepest gratitude for Mr Abe’s many substantive achievements during his lifetime. We pray for the repose of his soul.

I believe that the outcome of yesterday’s Upper House election is a reflection of the public’s expectations for stable governance by the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as it deals with various matters affecting people’s lives, including measures to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to the rising prices of resources and consumer goods resulting from the situation in Ukraine.

Amid the current shortage of semiconductors and soaring costs of raw materials, Japan’s automakers, together with supply-chain and sales-network colleagues, are acting in concert so that our industry can address in a unified way the problems we face. We are striving with utmost effort to protect manufacturing and employment while aiming also to ensure competitiveness, even as our industry undergoes major transformations in its shift to carbon neutrality and its transition to the new mobility of the future.

The new era of mobility we are entering will see the automobile industry grow to include increasing numbers of stakeholders. As one of Japan’s core industries, we hope that the Kishida administration and ruling coalition will count on us to be a kind of pacemaker as they take up the Prime Minister’s “new capitalism” initiatives. In the interest of Japan’s growth, we look forward, in addition, to a robust discussion on measures to reform the automobile tax regime.

Japan’s automotive industry will not only continue to contribute to the so-called virtuous cycle of growth and distribution advocated by the Kishida administration but also work to strengthen Japan’s competitiveness, on the basis of the combined efforts of the 5.5 million people our industry comprises.

*****