After making steady progress in the economic field, Japan's deregulatory efforts are now entering a more difficult stage as they come to grips with social regulations, according to Yoshihiko Miyauchi, chairman of Orix Corp. and head of a government panel on regulatory reforms.
"(The country) is hedged in with regulations that are intertwined with social systems. These areas are heavily regulated and the surgical knife (of deregulation) has yet to reach them," said Miyauchi, head of the Regulatory Reform Committee.
As examples of such hitherto untouched fields, Miyauchi cited agriculture, education, medicine, welfare and employment.