 First step toward destroying national assets: Cabinet approves postal privatization plan Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's Cabinet pushed through the basic plan for postal privatization on September 10. It is a plan to privatize Japan Post on April 1st, 2007, putting an end to the 130 year history of the national postal services. Under the plan, the privatized Japan Post would be broken up into four entities under a holding company: a network of over-the-counter services; mail delivery; postal savings; and postal insurance. After privatization, Japan Post would no longer be exempted from duty to pay taxes, and the current government guarantee for postal savings and "kampo" life insurance would be abolished. The government intends to introduce a postal privatization bill to the next ordinary session of the Diet that begins in January 2004. Plan to end postal services not in the public interest Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi published the following statement criticizing the cabinet approval of the postal privatization plan: The Koizumi Cabinet approved the plan to privatize Japan Post in 2007. However, nothing has been explained in response to the people's basic concerns: what is the aim of the privatization and what changes will there be in the quality of services as a result of the privatization? In fact, this privatization plan is in response to the long-standing demand of the major banks and life insurance companies that postal savings and "kampo" postal life insurance, which they see as obstacles to their business, be abolished. The plan includes closure or consolidation of smaller post offices and cutting back present postal services. In addition, what is termed as "postal reform" avoids prohibiting the Liberal Democratic Party and its members of parliament from maintaining vested interests which have distorted the nation's postal services. Such a plan does not deserve to be called a "reform". The JCP stands firm against the postal privatization plan and will make every effort to reform the postal services in the interests of the people. (end) |