Our guest speaker for the International Policy Forum meeting in May was Masaaki Taira. As Parliamentary Vice-Minister for the Economy, Trade and Industry, he is a key person in the creation of the growth strategy of the Abe cabinet.  Mr Taira, an author of the LDP’s economic policy in the party’s 2010 manifesto, talked to us about the progress of the creation of this so-called "third arrow" of Abenomics, and revealed some of the expected contents with a focus on measures affecting small and medium sized companies.  Mr Taira is very unusual in having built his political career on the back of an impressive track record in the private sector, where he personally managed several small and medium companies, and even participated in the founding of a bank. It was his experience as an entrepreneur that led him into politics, after being selected as a member of METI’s Industrial Structure Council in 2005.