Postal privatization bills pass Japan’s lower house
Japan’s lower house passed a set of controversial postal privatization bills Tuesday, giving a stamp of approval to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s economic reforms.
The government resubmitted the bills to privatize Japan Post after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) won a landslide victory at the September 11 general election.
Koizumi’s key reform project passed the lower house in a plenary session by 338 to 138 votes, an expected result with the ruling coalition of LDP and the New Komeito party holding more than two-thirds of the seats in the lower house.
The upper house is expected to approve the legislation Friday.
The bills presented at the House of Representatives Tuesday have not been revised much since the House of Councillors rejected the bills and some of the LDP members cast negative votes in August.
Koizumi dissolved lower house and called for a general election in September.
The prime minister pushed his initiatives during his political campaign, and his LDP and coalition New Komeito secured more than two-thirds of the seats in the lower house.
Japan Post is the biggest state-run enterprise in the country, holding more than 380 trillion yen (3 trillion dollars) in assets. Considered the world’s largest bank, the postal service invests its deposits mainly in government securities and bonds for public companies, as well as road construction and the real estate sector, unlike most other commercial banking services.
By leaving it to the private sector, Koizumi aims to liberate the postal services from political control and to intensify competition in the finance and logistics industry.
Japan Post manages 25,000 offices and employs 280,000 full-time workers.
Once privatized, the postal services will be divided into four stock companies on Oct. 1, 2007. Although the savings and life insurance businesses will go private only by September 30, 2017, the services will still be made available at post offices nationwide. dpa cm pw
