Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet will launch an e-mail magazine June 14 and hold its first "town meeting" June 16 to boost dialogue with the public, government officials said Tuesday.
The Koizumi Cabinet Mail Magazine, to be sent out on the Internet every Thursday, will feature a message by the prime minister and comments from some of his Cabinet ministers, the officials said.
"Many of you may know me only as a 'maverick' or as someone with a hairstyle like a lion," Koizumi says in a preliminary issue that appeared Tuesday on the Internet at www.kantei.go.jp "I hope you will find out the true nature of the Koizumi Cabinet" by reading the weekly magazine, he says.
The Net magazine, to be issued only in Japanese, is available free to anyone registering their e-mail address at the site. The first set of public "town meetings" will be held in Aomori and Kagoshima prefectures. Two Cabinet ministers, two senior vice ministers and an expert will attend each meeting, the officials said.
Heizo Takenaka, minister of economic and fiscal policy, will attend the meeting in the city of Aomori. Nobuteru Ishihara, minister of administrative reform, will participate in the gathering in the city of Kagoshima.