Tag: Japan

Japan Post aims to beef up its international business to survive intensifying global competition ahead of its planned privatisation beginning in 2007, according to Masaharu Ikuta, president of the government-owned entity.
“Our international business is small right now. But we are trying to establish the business as an important cornerstone in the future,” Ikuta, the 69-year-old former chairman of shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. said.

Japan’s government said it may keep a stake in state-owned Japan Post, which holds about a fifth of the nation’s household financial assets, for 10 years after a planned sale in 2007.

Posts minister Taro Aso has backed Japan Post’s plan to expand its business operations before it is privatised in 2007. “I think it is the right direction to make it better prepared for privatisation,” Aso, minister of public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications, told a press conference.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to set up a preparatory office to promote the privatisation of Japan Post on April 26, the third anniversary of his entering office.

The office will be under the premier’s direct supervision, as Koizumi wants to show his determination to complete the privatisation of the postal services in 2007 ahead of the House of Councillors election in July, according to the sources.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he will appoint former senior agriculture bureaucrat Yoshiaki Watanabe as his adviser on privatizing Japan Post so the project gathers momentum toward the planned completion in 2007.