Tag: Japan

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.

The Japanese government on Tuesday decided to delay the start of postal service privatization by six months to give state-run Japan Post sufficient time to prepare its computer system. Under the new timetable, the privatization process will start in October 2007. The government will make no other major changes to its postal reform program plans. It will permit Japan Post to start international distribution services from April 2006 as planned. Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka, who is also in charge of postal privatization, said the changes were made solely for technical reasons. The government hopes for Japan Post to make utmost effort during the newly given preparatory period to prevent any computer system failures. But another half year can be added to the period if a major system glitch does occur.

Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, on Monday sought to press home his advantage after a massive election victory on Sunday, saying he wanted to push postal privatisation through parliament within two weeks. Party officials said the Liberal Democratic party, which now has a two-thirds majority in the lower house, might take the unusual step of submitting the bills to the upper house first to save time. Its strength in the lower house means it can pass the bills even if the upper chamber rejects them. Mr Koizumi called a snap poll last month after the upper house voted down his bills, turning the election into what he said was a referendum on privatisation of the post office, the world’s biggest bank.