Japan Reaffirms Opposition to Full Postal Privatization
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Thursday reaffirmed its opposition to a set of postal deregulation bills for full privatization of postal services, Kyodo News reported Thursday.
The move by the LDP Policy Research Council’s Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Division came two days after a House of Representatives committee on postal services kicked off debate over the bills.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has long championed full liberalization of the postal services, saying the bills would be a milestone.
The issue of whether to privatize the postal services is highly political, as there are many lawmakers both in the ruling and opposition parties with vested interests in the postal services — mail, postal savings and life insurance.
The bills are designed to allow private firms to offer mail services under certain conditions and to establish a new public corporation in 2003 to take over the three state-run postal services.
