Leader of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Minister's Secretariat supervises the administration of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and takes charge of comprehensive coordination, including the drafting of basic policies, the establishment, amendment and abolition of laws and ordinances, the compilation of the budget, organization and personnel affairs.
Core Organization for Comprehensive Coordination in the Ministry
Minister's Secretariat is the core organization for comprehensive coordination within the ministry and represents the whole ministry at the Diet, or toward other ministries and agencies, mass media, nationals at large, etc.
Brains to Examine Bills
The establishment of laws, cabinet orders, ministerial orders, etc. is essential for the realization of proposed policies. Minister's Secretariat examines the laws to be established, amended or abolished, for the development of a highly logical and definite legal system.
Compilation of 
17 trillion Budget
The general account budget related to the Ministry, excluding government bond costs, of around 17 trillion represents over one third of the general expenditure budget. Accordingly, polices and decisions of the MHLW significantly affect the compilation of the governmental budget as a whole. Under the severe financial circumstances, Minister's Secretariat closely examines the necessity of each project and makes necessary adjustments before compiling the huge budget for the ministry.
Besides the general account, the ministry has six Special Accounts for Employees' Insurance, National Pension, Seamen's Insurance, Labour Insurance, National Hospitals and Measures for Advancing the Demand-Supply Structure of Coal, Oil and Other Energy. Through appropriate compilation of the budget, the ministry contributes to the life of nationals.
State-of-the-art Scientific Technology and Countermeasures against Health Crises
Under a new concept of "health science", which covers scientific and technological areas to answer people's needs in health, welfare and life sanitation fields, the ministry strongly promotes researches upon major diseases of the elderly, including dementia, diabetes and hypertension, as well as those for the realization of regeneration medicine utilizing self-repairing ability. The budget for the project, which is implemented as one of the millennium projects, is 112.4 billion in fiscal 2000.
In the meantime, the "Coordination Conference for Crisis and Consequence Management in Health" has been organized to enable respective departments and bureaus to cooperate in taking appropriate and prompt measures against health crises threatening people's safety, such as O-157 and the mixing in of toxic substances. Thus, information is shared under the communication system solidified by the establishment of the conference.
Progress of Internationalization and Development of Health, Labour and Welfare Administration
The progress of economic globalization has necessitated aggressive international efforts in the health, labour and welfare administration.
First of all, in social policy areas, Minister's Secretariat participates in OECD activities and exchanges policies with advanced nations. It also offers international cooperation to developing nations, holding the 3rd East Asian Meeting of High-Level Official's on Caring Societies in Tokyo for sharing knowledge and experience in this area.
Second, in labour policies, it positively participates in ILO, OECD and APEC activities. In September 2001, an APEC ministerial conference for human resource training is to be held in Kumamoto. Furthermore, its representative will participate in the conference of Cabinet members in charge of employment to be held in Italy in November this year, to exchange opinion with G8 nations. It will also hold bilateral meetings for dialogue with advanced and other nations including Germany, while offering international cooperation for the training of human resources to support the development of developing nations.
Third, in health and medical fields, it participates in and supports a variety of international frameworks, particularly WHO, to cooperate in taking measures against tobacco and emerging/reemerging diseases including malaria. At the same time, international cooperation is strongly promoted, giving emphasis to "human resource training", through sending experts and accepting trainees in fields covering basic human needs such as pharmaceuticals, population and water supply.
It also makes efforts for international harmonization of systems and standards through bilateral conferences with the U.S. and other nations and activities of WTO, WHO/FAO, in response to demands for further opening of medical supplies, food and other markets, giving the top priority to the securing of people's health. It is also active in holding bilateral conferences, etc. on labour problems in Japan.