環境・デジタル化で成長　会員任命拒否「狙い撃ち」否定―菅首相・参院代表質問

　菅義偉首相は３０日の参院代表質問で、新型コロナウイルス感染収束を見据えた経済政策として、脱炭素社会の実現とデジタル化を成長戦略の柱に据えると表明した。首相は「グリーン社会実現とデジタル化で経済社会を大きく変革し、経済成長を実現させる」と述べた。国民民主党の小林正夫参院議員会長への答弁。
　日本学術会議の会員候補６人の任命を拒否した問題に関し、首相は「特定の分野の研究者であることをもって判断したことはない」と述べ、「狙い撃ち」を否定した。共産党の小池晃書記局長が「総合的、俯瞰（ふかん）的な観点に反する」と批判したのに反論した。６人はいずれも人文・社会科学系で、安全保障関連法などの制定に反対してきた。
　首相は現在の会員の所属について、七つの旧帝国大が４５％を占めるのに対し、その他の国公立大は１７％、私立大は２４％にとどまるとして旧帝大偏重を問題視。「多様性」を重視したと強調した。ただ、除外された６人のうち３人は少数派の私大に属している。任命拒否について「国会で説明できることは説明する」とも語った。（2020/10/30-18:22）

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday that building a decarbonized society and promoting digitalization will be pillars of his administration's growth strategy for the country, which is beefing up its efforts to overcome the novel coronavirus crisis.
   "We aim to drastically revamp our country's economic and social systems and realize economic growth by building a green society and accelerating digitalization," he said at a meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament. Suga made the remarks to Masao Kobayashi of the major opposition Democratic Party for the People.
   The prime minister denied that his recent decision not to appoint six of the 105 nominees to the Science Council of Japan was a targeted rejection of researchers in a particular field. In response to a question by Akira Koike, an executive of the Japanese Communist Party, an opposition party, Suga said that his decision was not based on the nominees' areas of study.
   Koike criticized Suga's move as being "against comprehensive and panoramic perspectives," which the prime minister has cited as the reason for his decision.
   The six rejected scholars, who were recommended by the SCJ, all specialize in the fields of humanities and social sciences, and had opposed the national security legislation or the state secrets protection law pushed by the administration of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Suga's predecessor.