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Who benefits from postal privatization?

The Koizumi Cabinet on November 11 appointed Nishikawa Yoshifumi, former president of the Japanese Bankers Association (JBA) and former chairman of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., as the president of a holding company to be established for postal services after concluding the process of postal privatization in October 2007.

The cabinet has also named other business leaders, including Okuda Hiroshi (president, Japan Business Federation) and Kitashiro Rakutaro (chairman, Japan Association of Corporate Executives) as members of the holding company's top management.

This clearly shows whose interests the postal privatization scheme represents.

Nishikawa was the JBA president and has long been an advocate of postal privatization. As a representative of the banking industry, he has demanded that the postal savings program be reduced on the pretext of ensuring fair competition.

Since he became the president of former Sumitomo Bank in 1997, he has always used strong-arm tactics in carrying out corporate restructuring schemes, including the business merger with the former Sakura Bank, the write-off of bad loans, and personnel cuts.

At a news conference on November 11, Nishikawa said, "Unlike a public corporation, a privatized company can take risks. One can make profits from a successful business that runs risks. I want the holding company to increase competitiveness with a business model appropriate to a privatized company."

Doing business with the motto "Do everything for profits," he is seeking to have the privatized postal company make inroads into finance speculation.

His profit-first policy will raise public concern that postal savings or people's nest eggs will be at risk and that the public services will be undermined. -- Akahata, November 13, 2005