Tag: Japan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday unveiled a set of measures, including a bill to privatise Japan’s postal system to be submitted to the ordinary Diet session next year, as part of his basic policy to further structural reform.

On the diplomatic front, the premier promised to focus more effort on reconstruction aid to postwar Iraq, a resolution of North Korean issues, and concluding a peace treaty between Japan and Russia.

The disclosure of the basic policy comes in line with Koizumi’s appointment of new executives of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the latest Cabinet reshuffle the same day.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is poised to accelerate planned privatisation of the state-run Japan Post by appointing right-hand man Heizo Takenaka as postal reform minister in Monday’s Cabinet reshuffle.

Postal privatisation is the centerpiece of Koizumi’s structural reforms and Takenaka has taken the lead in drawing up the privatisation scheme.

The roster of Koizumi’s Cabinet reshuffle including the appointment of Takenaka for the portfolio of postal reform minister showed the premier’s unswerving resolve to push ahead with the postal reform.

Koizumi had said he would refrain from selecting anyone who would not cooperate over postal reform, and all members of his new Cabinet expressed support for Koizumi’s privatisation plan for Japan Post at news conferences after being appointed.

Only 38 percent of people surveyed support a Cabinet blueprint for the privatisation of the state-run postal services, while 81 percent want the government to direct its efforts elsewhere, according to a nationwide survey conducted Sept. 11 and 12 by The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Meanwhile, 25 percent of respondents said they opposed a blueprint to privatise the three postal services adopted by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Cabinet on Sept. 10.

Those in support of the plan have decreased by 17 percentage points since a similar survey was conducted in August 2001. People opposing the scheme grew by one percentage point during the same period.