Japan's Economy Minister Hiroko Ota said Wednesday she will make every effort to avoid an economic reform vacuum despite the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
She added "it's necessary to keep boosting (Japanese) economic growth," Ota said. "Japan is not in a situation where we can stop economic reforms," she said, speaking to reporters.
She said she is not sure whether she will remain in her post even if the next prime minister asks her to do so.
Ota, who used to be the senior Cabinet Office official in charge of compiling the annual economic report, has served as economic minister from the start of Abe's administration. Before she took her present post, she was a professor of economics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy studies in Tokyo.