Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

JCP supports bill to review postal service privatization

A bill to review the privatization of postal services was voted down by the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties at the House of Representatives Plenary session on December 11. It was supported by the Japanese Communist, Democratic, People’s New, and Social Democratic parties.

Prior to the vote, JCP representative Shiokawa Tetsuya made a statement in support of the bill. He said, “In the year since the postal services were privatized, the ‘benefits’, which the government and ruling parties were claiming the postal service privatization would bring, have not materialized,” pointing out the lowered quality of postal services and the worsening working conditions of postal workers.

He criticized the government for using the postal services to sell off high-risk financial products on the pretext of the need to “bring the money from the public to the private sector,” expressing that this is equivalent to fraud.

Pointing out that the privatization of postal services was the U.S. financial industry’s demand, Shiokawa stressed that it is clear now what the “financial privatization” pressed by the U.S. financial industry has brought to Japan and other parts of the world.

He said that it is essential that the government holds 100 percent of the Japan Post’s shares in order to revise its businesses to maintain public services, including the nationwide network of post offices and uniform financial services. “Now is the time to build a national consensus about an ideal postal service, which should be national property,” he added.

The bill passed through the House of Councilors in December last year.