Koizumi criticized by LDP
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi came under fire from a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) colleague on Tuesday, the first day of the full-fledged deliberations on a package of four bills on postal services deregulation.
LDP member Yamato Inaba told the House of Representatives panel on posts and telecommunications, “The idea of opening the (postal-services) market to the private sector and offering the services based on the principle of a market mechanism cannot coexist with providing equal and universal postal services.”
Koizumi, who did not attend the session, told reporters in the evening that the start of the parliamentary debate marked the beginning of the deregulation of the postal services and of proceedings to open up the market to the private sector.
The lower house panel on Tuesday began debating a package of four government-sponsored bills designed to allow private firms to begin offering mail services and to establish a new public corporation in 2003 to take over the three state-run postal services — mail, postal savings and “Kampo” life insurance.
“We must see the bills enacted at all costs,” Koizumi said. Postal privatization is one of Koizumi’s pet projects, and he views it as a key pillar of his structural reform plans.
Inaba was seen as speaking on behalf of the many LDP lawmakers with vested interests in the postal sector who have stridently opposed privatization of such services, saying that allowing private firms into the sector will lead to the closure of some publicly run post offices in remote areas and inconvenience the public.
Inaba also said the government “must make sure it will not serve the interests of certain private firms,” criticizing the premier who is said to support future entries into the postal market by some courier and trucking firms, including Yamato Transport Co.
Yamato Transport, the only entity with a nationwide network in the delivery industry, had expressed keen interest in entering the field, but said in late April it had abandoned the idea because private firms would be likely put under many business restrictions.
Although the bills do not state whether the planned public postal corporation would eventually be privatized, Koizumi told the lower house plenary session May 21 that allowing private firms into the industry would be “a milestone for the eventual privatization” of the three postal services.
The remarks infuriated LDP lawmakers who are against postal privatization.
