Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday that the Finance Ministry and a key policy-setting council will establish a joint panel tasked with promoting a shift of funds from the public to the private sector.
"The flow of funds should be shifted from the public sector to the private sector," Shiokawa told a news conference. "This is only a matter of course. We must study the flow of public funds."
Shiokawa's comments came after private-sector members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy said during a meeting Wednesday that the volume of funds directed to the public sector is expanding -- and that action should be taken to stop the trend.
Shiokawa said that two of the private-sector council members -- Osaka University professor Masaaki Homma and University of Tokyo professor Hiroshi Yoshikawa -- will join the panel.