Tag: Asia

The government again submitted postal privatization bills to the Diet – about 50 days after Japan’s upper house scrapped them – and hopes they pass in mid-October. The bills were submitted to the House of Representatives after being endorsed during an extraordinary Cabinet meeting in the morning. Postal privatization is a centerpiece policy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s structural reform drive. The fresh bills are almost identical to those the House of Councillors rejected Aug. 8, when opponents of them, including members of Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party, voted against them. They are certain to pass the ongoing special Diet session as Japan’s governing coalition of the LDP and New Komeito party took more than two-thirds of the lower house seats in the Sept. 11 general election. The special Diet session convened last week for a 42-day run through Nov. 1. Upper house LDP rebels have recently changed their stance and now support the bills.

Fresh off a landslide electoral victory, the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will get down to the nuts-and-bolts of privatizing the postal service in a special session of Parliament that opens on Wednesday. The ruling coalition led by Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party roared to triumph in Sept. 11 elections for the lower house, clinching a hefty two-thirds majority in the chamber and a decisive mandate for postal reform. The government will get a crack at following through on its campaign promises when Parliament opens on Wednesday, beginning a process expected to lead to a vote on the postal legislation in mid-October. The top opposition Democratic Party of Japan, in disarray following its devastating defeat last week, was expected to come up with its own proposal – a development that government officials said they would welcome.