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.