Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Friday gave his Cabinet till the end of the month to report on how the 24 trillion yen economic stimulus package announced in November is being implemented.
At a press conference after a Cabinet meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said he wants to thoroughly check how the packages' measures, included in the supplementary budget for fiscal 1998 and the fiscal 1999 budget, have been put into effect. "If there are problems," Obuchi was quoted as saying, "we would like to overcome them, and I hope to achieve economic recovery with indomitable resolve."
Obuchi leaves for the United States at the end of the month for talks with President Bill Clinton and wants to be armed with details on how the measures, such as those to create more jobs, are being carried out by local governments.