The need now is to move away from postal privatization

Japan Press Weekly

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

The need now is to move away from postal privatization

Akahata editorial

Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Hatoyama Kunio resigned due to a dispute over the reappointment of Japan Post Holdings Co. President Nishikawa Yoshifumi, ex-president of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG).

Hatoyama has publicly stated he would not allow Nishikawa to retain the post because he is to blame for the trouble over “Kampo no Yado”, resort inns built with money from postal insurance premiums. Hatoyama’s opposition to the reappointment infuriated business leaders as well as the political group of strong advocates of postal privatization, including former Prime Minister Koizumi Jun’ichiro and former Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Takenaka Heizo, a major architect of the postal privatization policy. This prompted Prime Minister Aso Taro to approve the reappointment of Nishikawa and the virtual dismissal of Hatoyama rather than accepting his offer of resignation.

Prey on public assets

Japan Post attempted to sell off 79 facilities, including “Kampo no Yado” inns, in questionable deals. The construction of these facilities cost 240 billion yen but the total price offered to Orix Real Estate Corp. was just 10.9 billion yen without a competitive bidding.

What is more, the Orix Chairman is Miyauchi Yoshihiko, who played a leading role in promoting the Koizumi government “structural reform” schemes and in drawing out the plan to privatize the country’s postal services. It is natural that the public saw the deal as a fire sale of public assets held by Japan Post to a corporation that played a key role in privatizing the postal services.

SMFG, where Nishikawa was the president, is making out like a bandit off the postal privatization. Japan Post sold off eight housing facilities built at 34 billion yen, including “Kampo no Yado” inns, for only 1.1 billion yen to a real-estate firm of which SMFG is the largest shareholder.

In Japan Post Bank’s card business, Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company has increased its share to 99 percent after the privatization from 0.2 percent at the time of the former Postal Services Corporation. One of the managing executive officers of Japan Post Bank (JP Bank), who gave Sumitomo Mitsui a commission to undertake Japan Post Bank’s credit card business unit, is former vice-president of Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company. It is a great business opportunity for a credit card company to be awarded the JP credit card project expected to be worth tens of billions of yen in the future, and that will determine which company becomes the leader of the credit card industry.

Key management posts in Japan Post Holdings Co., including its president, managing executive officer, standing executive officer, and Postal Savings Bank vice president and standing executive officer, are held by people from the SMFG. Former SMFG gurus hold positions responsible for internal audits and overseeing law compliance.

Postal services are public assets that have increased in value over the years from people’s savings and insurances premiums as well as postage revenues. They have served to support local residents’ livelihoods. Now this has been made a prey to the for-profit corporations since the postal services were privatized.

Takenaka Heizo, then Internal Affairs minister, strongly recommended Nishikawa to be Japan Post Holdings Co. president. Takenaka praised Nishikawa for his ambitions and said that he would without fail make a great contribution to the privatized postal services from an independent position.

Takenaka is very much behind Nishikawa by saying that politicians should not meddle in Japan Post matters. Japan Post Holdings Co. is wholly government-owned. The government has the responsibility to protect the public assets. To begin with, Takenaka has no right to “meddle” in the current affairs regarding Japan Post Holdings. He should apologize to the public for allowing the banking industry to profiteer off postal services.

Government is subservient to major banks

During the House of Representatives election four years ago, the Liberal Democratic Party argued that postal services privatization is the key to all reforms. Then Komei Party Secretary General Fuyushiba Tetsuzo said that postal privatization is a quick fix for the ailing Japanese economy.

What an absurd and false argument it turned out to be! Obviously, the privatization has resulted in allowing the major banks to retain their vested interests. We demand that the government stop selling JP stock and overturn postal privatization policy. - Akahata, June 14, 2009