Government to form firm to prepare for Japan Post’s successor

The Japanese government will create a planning company Jan. 23 to set the stage for the planned formation in 2007 of a holding firm tasked with overseeing Japan Post’s privatisation, the posts minister said Friday.

At a news conference, Heizo Takenaka, minister of internal affairs and communications, unveiled the schedule of events leading up to January’s formation of the planning company.

According to the schedule, the government will convene the first of a series of task force meetings Tuesday to pave the way for the planning company’s establishment, he said.

The government will then officially devise the articles of an association for the planning company Jan. 11 at the second of the task force meetings.

On Jan. 20, the government will organize a plenary meeting to select the board of directors and other executives to take up a range of duties at the planning company.

Under legislation that cleared the Diet in October, Japan Post, the public corporation in charge of postal services, will be split into four stock firms Oct. 1, 2007, which will be placed under the holding firm.

The four will then be privatized over the subsequent 10 years. The government has picked former Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. President Yoshifumi Nishikawa as the holding company’s chief.

Three of the four will be tasked with taking over Japan Post’s three major functions — postal savings, postal insurance and mail delivery. The fourth will provide a range of over-the-counter services at the nationwide post office network.

Takenaka suggested that the selection of the top managers of the envisioned four may be delayed until after the planning company’s Jan. 20 plenary meeting.

“Although it is desirable that the top managers will have been unofficially selected (by the government) as of that date…it will be really hard to find good managers,” he said.