Koizumi urges coalition partners' cooperation on postal bills
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday called on his Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) partners in the tripartite ruling bloc to cooperate on quickly enacting four postal services deregulation bills.
In a meeting with the party leaders and secretaries general at his official residence, Koizumi urged them to discuss the legislation altogether despite the fact the LDP is split over some deregulation measures, LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki told reporters.
By saying so, Koizumi apparently asked the coalition members not to treat controversial measures in the bills separately in Diet debates so the legislation will be enacted by June 19, the end of the current session and a deadline he set.
The bills are designed to let private firms offer mail services and establish a new public corporation to take over the existing postal services — mail, postal savings and “kampo” life insurance — from the government in 2003.
Calls grew recently, however, among some LDP executives that the bills, especially one to permit private firms to begin providing mail delivery services, be carried over to the next Diet session, given the strong opposition from some LDP and opposition lawmakers.
The issue of privatizing the postal services — one of Koizumi’s pet schemes — is highly political as there are many lawmakers both in the ruling and opposition parties with vested interests in the postal services.
At Thursday’s meeting, the participants, including New Komeito party leader Takenori Kanzaki and New Conservative Party leader Takeshi Noda, also agreed to do their utmost to win Sunday Diet elections in Niigata and Wakayama prefectures to maintain the coalition’s stability, Yamasaki said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, a senior LDP member, was also at the meeting.
Kanzaki proposed participants discuss measures to prop up the ailing economy at the next meeting after the April 27-May 6 spring holiday, Yamasaki said.
Kanzaki wants Koizumi’s administration to carry out tax reforms including tax cuts aimed at boosting investment by the March 2003 end of fiscal 2002.
Noda said separately he proposed in the meeting to step up debates on topics such as political ethics and an additional antideflation measure in the next meeting.
