Postal privatization blueprint may be adopted next Friday

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi renewed his resolve Friday to push forward with postal reform despite criticism within his Liberal Democratic Party, saying he wants to endorse a basic policy for privatizing the nation’s postal services at next Friday’s Cabinet meeting.

He wants to see the blueprint adopted after the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy finalizes it early next week, LDP lawmakers said.

LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fukushiro Nukaga met with Koizumi in the premier’s office and explained the stubborn opposition within the party.

According to Nukaga, Koizumi indicated he will not stick to the adoption of the basic policy at next Friday’s Cabinet meeting and may discuss the matter with the LDP.

Asked about the talks with Nukaga, however, Koizumi told reporters, “I told Mr. Nukaga, let us discuss the issue by next Friday thoroughly.”

A majority of LDP lawmakers are opposed to the privatization itself, and criticism of the plan dominated a meeting of a special LDP panel on postal reform on Thursday, which economic and fiscal minister Heizo Takenaka attended to present the government policy.

A senior LDP lawmaker said Koizumi has yet to give up adopting the basic policy at next Friday’s Cabinet meeting.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda also told a news conference the government’s policy of aiming to endorse the basic policy for postal privatization next Friday has not changed.

Earlier in the day, Koizumi also met with the secretaries general of the LDP and the New Komeito party — Shinzo Abe and Tetsuzo Fuyushiba — and asked them to coordinate their opinions on postal privatization in line with Koizumi’s policy.

Meanwhile, Takenaka indicated Friday morning the government may abandon its initial target of endorsing a basic policy of privatizing Japan Post next Tuesday due to remaining gaps over key issues.

Asked about the prospects for the next meeting of the key policy-setting government panel on Tuesday, Takenaka told a news conference that the panel is unlikely to adopt a basic policy there because agreements have not yet been reached in many areas.

“I don’t think we will adopt the basic policy (on Tuesday),” Takenaka said. “We are at a stage of drafting a compromise with posts minister Taro Aso.”

Prior to a Cabinet meeting Friday morning, Takenaka and Aso, minister of public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications, met and discussed the matter.

The government panel, which is chaired by Koizumi, focused on contentious issues Wednesday such as the timing of dividing the state-backed Japan Post into four independent companies. The participants agreed to continue debating the issue.

The draft says the government will privatize Japan Post postal services as four independent businesses for mail delivery, postal savings, life insurance and management of the network of over-the-counter services at post offices.

It also stipulates the government will privatize the public postal corporation in stages beginning in April 2007 and complete the process by 2017.

But it does not specify whether Japan Post will be immediately divided into four independent entities at the start of the privatization process in April 2007.

Takenaka, who has spearheaded postal reform along with Koizumi, wants Japan Post to be divided into four entities in 2007, while Aso wants the division to come much later.

Japan Post took over the government’s postal services in April last year.