Japan Post chief Koizumi prepares for postal reform

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is planning to create a new ministry to direct postal privatisation, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Monday.

“To ensure the privaization of Japan Post, scheduled for 2007, the prime minister will create a new portfolio for a minister in charge of postal service reforms,” the paper said. It cited sources in Koizumi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Koizumi has been determined to privatize the three huge postal service organizations but has been forced to move slowly because of entrenched opposition in the LDP and Japan’s slow though improving economic recovery.

However, economic analysts have said freeing up the huge resources tied up in the ultra-cautious postal savings and life insurance bureaucracies is essential to unlashing a new era of investment and growth in the Japanese economy.