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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Japanese and U.S. funds are to prey on privatized postal services to plunder 340 trillion yen
Akahata editorial (excerpt)

If Japan's postal services are privatized, a new postal savings bank will suffer a loss of 60 billion yen in FY 2016, but if Japan Post, the public corporation, is maintained, it will make 140 billion yen in profit. Takenaka Heizo, minister of state for privatization of the postal services, confirmed this in answer to Japanese Communist Party representative Sasaki Kensho's questioning at a House of Representatives special committee meeting.

It is Japanese and U.S. financiers that have been calling for postal savings and life insurance money to be funneled into the private sector.

In 1996, Hashimoto Ryutaro, the prime minister at the time, launched the financial Big Bang initiative. He promoted full deregulation of the financial market with the aim of providing a flow of personal financial assets, mainly risk-free assets such as bank deposits and postal savings, into the stock market.

Global standards were the slogan, but the reality was American standards serving the interests of U.S. financiers. It was an open secret that there was pressure from the U.S. Department of Treasury behind the move.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan complains that amid the ongoing financial deregulation, "Japan's Big Bang excluded reform of Kampo (postal life insurance) and Yucho (postal savings)."

It argues that the privatization of Japan's postal services "should be consistent with and complement Big Bang principles," and that stock holdings by foreign investors should not be restricted.

The government argument for a change in fund flow under privatized postal services enables financial giants of Japan and the United States to take away about 340 trillion yen (as of May) from postal savings and life insurance.

To block such a plan is the only choice to save people's money. -- Akahata, June 16, 2005