In his policy speech to the parliament on Dec. 6, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida touched on the importance of economic security.
“With countries around the world engaging in fierce competition to secure strategic goods and acquire key technologies, economic security is a matter of great urgency,” he said.
To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, Kishida said the government will make investments of some ¥500 billion to fund domestic production of vaccines, development of therapeutic drugs and installment of dual-use facilities that can easily be switched from producing biopharmaceuticals to vaccines when needed.