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On May 1, the Chair of the DPJ New Influenza Strategy Headquarters, DPJ Acting President Naoto Kan, visited the Prime Minister’s Residence, and handed over a petition addressed to Prime Minister Taro Aso, head of the government’s Headquarters for Countermeasures against Pandemic Influenza to Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura. The petition called for the government to take appropriate measures to deal with the new influenza pandemic. Kan was accompanied by Strategy Headquarters Deputy Chair, Chair of the Policy Research Committee Masayuki Naoshima, and his deputies Akira Nagatsuma and Tetsuro Fukuyama.
In the meeting with the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the DPJ side called on the administration to implement the following three points: strengthening the provision of information to the public, thoroughly implementing border measures, and consolidating the medical system and manufacture of vaccines. In particular, they stressed that there was a limit to the capability to manufacture vaccines produced using hen’s eggs, and suggested that the government should speedily ensure a supply of vaccine effective against the new influenza virus by for example, signing provisional contracts with companies applying to manufacture vaccines using cell culture-based methods.
After handing over the petition, Kan told reporters: “We suggested that [the government] take care to provide the appropriate information to the people, including giving the Diet updates on the situation.” He expressed the DPJ’s opinion that this should be treated as a serious issue related to national crisis management, even during the Golden Week holiday period, stressing that, since it was conceivable that there could be cases of people entering Japan without symptoms while still in the incubation period of the disease, “We proposed that even if it might cause some inconvenience, we would like [the government] to prioritise border measures [in order to prevent the virus from entering Japan].”
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