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Japan cabinet

should continue

seeking recovery

TOKYO: Japan's Economic Planning Agency (EPA) Minister Masahiko Komura said Japan's new cabinet should continue serious efforts to put the nation's economy on track for a full-fledged recovery.

"I want the new cabinet to take necessary economy-boosting measures. It should continue efforts to put the Japanese economy on track to full-fledged recovery," Komura told a news conference.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama is now in the process of forming a new cabinet.

Komura said he wants his successor to manage the economy in an appropriate way, and wants other ministries to work as a team and cooperate with the new EPA minister.

Looking back on his term as EPA minister, Komura said the cabinet may not always have been able to take fiscal and monetary steps as early as it should.

He cited the massive earthquake which hit central Japan in January and the yen's rapid rise as the most difficult issues he faced while he was EPA minister.

"My regret is that I could not complete the task to lead the economy to full-fledged recovery," Komura said. "I want to strengthen my political basis and come back here as EPA minister in about 10 years' time, and then everybody will listen to what I have to say."-Reuter