Koizumi Confident Postal Bills Will Pass

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he was confident of getting a postal services deregulation package passed in the Diet despite opposition from many lawmakers in both the ruling and opposition camps, Kyodo News agency reported. ‘Now almost all oppose them, but almost all will support them soon,’ Koizumi said in an address at a ceremony to mark the merger of the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren), into the Japan Business Federation (JBF). Koizumi said he hopes private companies will expand into mail service following the Diet passage of the bills that would allow private firms to begin offering mail services under strict conditions, Kyodo reported. ‘The government will create an environment in which what can be done by the private sector will be done by the private sector. I’ll be at a loss if they (private companies) say they cannot even if they can,’ Koizumi said. Koizumi made the remarks apparently in reference to a decision by Yamato Transport Co. (J.YMT) to give up plans to expand into mail on grounds conditions are too stringent, Kyodo reported