Government to legally require post offices to be situated across Japan

The government promised the dominant Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday to incorporate a clause requiring that post offices be evenly situated nationwide when it draws up bills to privatize Japan’s postal system, party lawmakers said.

“We’d like to firmly ensure by law that post offices are situated so they can be used universally nationwide,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda was quoted as saying in a meeting with the party. It was the government’s first concession over the postal privatization policy, which many LDP lawmakers oppose.

An LDP participant in the meeting later said the party will continue to seek further concessions from the government on privatization issues.

“We will take appropriate steps over depopulated areas,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said separately. “There is no worry that post offices will be closed in depopulated areas, though they will be restructured in urban areas.”

The government had tried to make the requirement for the universal service legally nonbinding, but accepted an LDP demand after the party threatened to freeze postal privatization talks with the government.

The LDP has proposed that one of Japan Post’s spin-offs be legally required to ensure that post offices stay evenly situated across Japan, irrespective of regional populations and profitability, so that the current network can be maintained.

The government plans to split the public corporation into four businesses under a holding company in April 2007 at the start of a 10-year privatization process. The four are to take over mail delivery, savings, life insurance and the post office network services.

Koizumi has placed top priority on passing a set of postal privatization bills during the regular Diet session through June. But the planned submission of the bills by mid-March has been delayed due to the prolonged negotiations with the LDP.