Yamato unhappy with govt's postal bills
Yamato Transport Co. on Tuesday informed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s close aides of its conclusion that it would be difficult for the company to enter the mail delivery service, expressing dissatisfaction with the four bills on postal service deregulation to be submitted to the current Diet session, according to sources.
Yamato, the largest home delivery service firm in the country, is considering entering the mail delivery market.
If the firm gives up the plan, it is highly likely that no other private businesses will enter the market even after it is opened to the private sector. In that event, the meaning of the bills would be questioned, observers said.
The company drew up Tuesday its position on the particular bill that specifies conditions to allow private firms to begin offering mail services, calling it a “bill designed to strengthen regulations.”
Handing the document to Koizumi’s close aides, Yamato officials conveyed its conclusion that it would be difficult for the company to enter the mail delivery market under the current circumstances, according to the sources.
Yamato pointed out the following as specific problems in the bills:
— The requirement that approval must be obtained from the Public Management Ministry to draw up and change business plans makes it difficult to maintain fair competition with a new public corporation, which is to take over the three postal services–mail delivery, postal savings and life insurance–from fiscal 2003.
— Certain types of parcels that are currently delivered by the private sector will be defined as “mail” under the bill’s broader interpretation, thus making it impossible for delivery service firms to continue handling such parcels.
Yamato also criticized the ministry’s requirement to set up a certain number of postal boxes nationwide, claiming that “barriers to enter the market are high, and it could turn out to be a market monopolized by a limited number of companies and the new postal corporation.”
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LDP OK’s submission of bills
A postal service-related panel of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council and the party’s General Council approved on Tuesday the submission of four bills on postal service deregulation to the Diet on the conditions that the party will continue to examine the contents of the bills and that they be approved by the party before approval by Diet committees.
The government is scheduled to approve the bills at a Cabinet meeting on Friday and submit them to the Diet that day.
In response, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stressed his intention to pass the bills during the current Diet session.
“I’ll do my best to pass the bills during the current Diet session to enable the entry of the private sector into the mail delivery market,” Koizumi told reporters at his official residence. “I’m not thinking (of failing to pass the bills). I’ll try hard, aiming solely at the passage of the bills,” he said.
