Koizumi vows not to revise postal bills despite LDP calls
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday in Canada a set of bills on deregulation of state-run postal services now before the Diet will not be revised despite some calls from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
I will not revise the bills into those which hinder the private sector from entering into the market, Koizumi told Japanese reporters, dismissing stiff opposition to the bills from senior LDP lawmakers, most with vested interest in the issue.
Koizumi made the remarks in Canada, where he attended the annual summit of the Group of Eight major nations, as some LDP members in Tokyo on Friday began stepping up moves to revise the bills.
In Tokyo, Hiroyuki Arai, who heads the LDP’s panel on postal services, completed preparatory work before sounding out party executives, including LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki and policy chief Taro Aso, about the possibility of revising the bills.
The bills include one to allow private firms to begin offering mail services, and another for the establishment of a new public corporation to take over the postal-related services — mail delivery, postal savings and Kampo life insurance — from the government from 2003.
Koizumi is an advocate of postal-service privatization, but some LDP members are reluctant to deregulate services such as mail delivery, currently operated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Public Management, Posts and Telecommunications.
Koizumi said he could allow a revision of the bills if it increases the chances of more companies entering into postal-related markets.
Arai told reporters it is impossible to say the bills could not be revised, adding that allowing private firms to enter into part of the mail-delivery service will be the greatest compromise he and other like-minded LDP members would accept.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, who is an LDP member and top aide to Koizumi, urged the ruling-party lawmakers to support the prime minister on the issue.
The Koizumi cabinet submitted the bills to parliament knowing it must be tough to iron out differences over the bills within the ruling coalition, and wants to see the bills pass through the Diet after resolving such differences, Fukuda said.
All that I can say is we want to enlist the ruling parties’ understanding, Fukuda said at a press conference in Tokyo.
AP-NY-06-28-02 0616EDT
FDMSKYviaNewsEdge
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