Tag: Asia

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated his determination Tuesday to privatize Japan’s postal services as the Diet began deliberations on a package of four government-sponsored bills on the issue.
The House of Representatives started debate on bills 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.
Koizumi told the lower house plenary session that allowing private firms into the industry would be “a milestone toward the eventual privatization” of the three postal services.

Hiromu Nonaka, an influential politician in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), on Tuesday openly expressed his displeasure at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s remarks Monday on the privatization of postal services, threatening to drop his support for a package of bills on the issue.
“I thought those bills should pass the Diet to ensure the smooth launch of a (planned) public postal corporation, but now that the prime minister said such a thing, maybe I should reconsider it,” Nonaka told reporters.