deregulation

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Japan Business Federation tops list of organizations making requests for deregulation

An internal document of the Cabinet Office shows that the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) tops the list of organizations in terms of the number of requests submitted to the government Office for Regulatory Reform and Market Opening for easing administrative regulations and for public services to be undertaken by the private sector.

The Office for Regulatory Reform and Market Opening is staffed mostly by employees of such major corporations such as Orix, the chairman of which chairs the government Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform and Market Opening. This indicates that the moves to turn the society into one governed by the law of the jungle are being promoted on the initiative of Nippon Keidanren and financial circles calling for further deregulation.

Akahata of March 19 reported that Nippon Keidanren, in all five surveys conducted between FY 2003-2005, submitted larger numbers of requests than any other organization in every survey. Its requests include exempting white collar workers from the legal regulation on working hours, lifting the ban on for-profit corporations to run medical institutions, and allowing non-health insured medical services to coexist with medical services covered by the national health insurance.
- Akahata, March 19, 2006