Mail deregulation bills to go to Diet by late April
ADVERTISEMENT
Posts minister Toranosuke Katayama said Sunday the government will overcome opposition from some ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers and submit to the Diet by the end of April two bills aimed at opening up mail services to the private sector in 2003.
“LDP members always hold heated debates but they will unite in the end,” said Katayama, minister of public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications.
Katayama is on a visit to Ishigakijima Island in Okinawa Prefecture as part of his mission to look into local municipal functions.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a strong advocate of postal service privatization, has instructed the ministry to prepare for simultaneous submission of the two bills to the Diet by the end of this month.
One bill is to allow private firms to begin offering mail services and the other is for the establishment of a new public corporation to take over the three postal services — mail, postal savings and “Kampo” insurance — from the government in 2003.
Koizumi wants the two bills to be enacted simultaneously so that private companies are able to begin offering mail services at the same time as the new public corporation is launched.
Some LDP members are strongly opposed to Koizumi’s vision of privatizing the three postal service operations because of their vested interests in postal services.
Katayama also said the government will likely table another bill stipulating the technical specifications of the two bills to the Diet next month because the Cabinet Legislation Bureau’s examinations on it have been delayed.
