Address by H.E. Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
at the 45th Annual Japan-U.S. Business Conference hosted by Japan-U.S. Business Councils
Embassy of Japan September 29, 2008
Policy Speech by Prime Minister Taro Aso to the 170th Session of the Diet
(On Assuming Office)
Having recently been designated by the highest organ of state power and having had my appointment attested by His Majesty the Emperor, I, Taro Aso, have assumed the office of Prime Minister of the Ninety-second Cabinet of our nation. Before me have come fifty-eight Prime Ministers. There is also the mighty river of constitutional government that has flowed on for almost 118 years. There are further the tradition of government that has continued to see the appointments of new Prime Ministers in keeping with constitutional procedures, and an uninterrupted accumulation of the hardships and the good fortune, the sorrows and the joys of the Japanese people, just like braided ropes.
At the present, which lies at the end of this long line, I am increasingly struck by the sheer gravity of the responsibilities that I am about to shoulder.
I wish for my words to reach the people of Japan-the elderly, who tend to lose their vigour, and young people; indeed, all the Japanese people-that Japan must be strong. A strong Japan is a country that is unwavering in adversity, seizing it as an opportunity to leap forward even further.
Japan must be bright. We know from accounts by many a foreigner who visited Japan in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, recording with astonishment that we Japanese, though by no means affluent, were certainly a people who loved to smile and laugh. This quality has surely been inherited in abundance by present generations. Our task is to revive it.
To the future of Japan and of the Japanese people, peace and security; to people's daily lives, stability and hope; and dreams for our children's future-I am keenly aware that my proper duty lies in bringing these about and rendering them rock-solid. It is thus that I sacrifice myself in order to discharge my duties as Prime Minister.
*The entire speech manuscript of the speech made by the Prime Minister
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/asospeech/2008/09/29housin_e.html
|
|