Japanese Government to resume postal privatisation talks next week

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Tuesday the government will resume discussions on postal privatization next week and draw up a final report on the issue in September.

“We will soon start full-fledged discussions on postal privatization,” Takenaka said at a news conference, suggesting that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy will restart the discussions next week.

“Everybody naturally expects that the private sector should do whatever it can,” he said. “But many people in Japan are wondering what will happen because privatization will take place at a very big organization.”

Prior to the news conference, Takenaka met Koizumi and arranged schedules for the discussions.

Japan’s three postal services — mail delivery, postal savings and “Kampo” life insurance — are currently handled by Japan Post, which took over the services from the governmental Postal Services Agency in April 2003.

The government plans to privatize the entity in stages starting in 2007.