Japanese Gov't expects private firms to enter mail service
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Sunday he expects private firms to enter into the mail delivery service after a set of bills on postal services deregulation is passed through the Diet.
“We’ll carry out what can be done with government ordinances, ministerial decrees and a manual. We hope the private sector will exercise ingenuity,” Abe said on a Fuji Television program.
Abe made the remarks in reference to a surprise decision by Yamato Transport Co. not to launch a mail delivery business under the bills’ legal framework.
Yamato Transport, which was considered the strongest candidate for entry, announced the decision Friday, after the Cabinet endorsed the bills to approve the private sector’s entry into the mail delivery business.
At a press conference Friday, Yamato Transport President Keiji Aritomi criticized the bills, saying they imposed too many requirements on new entrants.
Because the contents of the privatization plan seem to “put private companies on a short leash, one cannot expect fair competition,” Aritomi said.
Yamato Transport, the nation’s biggest door-to-door parcel delivery firm, had expressed keen interest in entering the mail delivery business if it were opened to the private sector under the initiative of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
