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Koizumi is only one step away from it.
This is pretty significant considering the massive size of its assets and the misallocation of funds it has been causing. It may well be Japan's single biggest millstone to growth.
Koizumi wins parliament vote on postal reform
>By David Ibison in Tokyo
>Published: July 5 2005 08:40 | Last updated: July 5 2005 08:40
Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, fought off a rebellion from within his own party and scored the most significant victory in his 30-year political career on Tuesday after the powerful lower house of parliament approved the privatisation of the state-owned post office.
Mr Koizumi had described the ballot as a vote of confidence in his leadership and threatened to dissolve parliament if lawmakers rejected the privatisation bills. Such a move would have triggered an immediate political crisis and prompted a snap election.
The bills will now go to the upper house of parliament, where a similarly difficult fight is expected. If approved, they will become law.
Japan’s post office is the largest state-owned financial services organisation in the world, overseeing Y350,000bn ($3,130bn) of funds. Its privatisation is a symbol of Mr Koizumi’s drive to reform Japan’s public sector and reduce the government’s paternalist role in the economy.
There was deep opposition from anti-reform elements of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ahead the vote, culminating in the resignations of a number of senior lawmakers on Tuesday morning in protest against Mr Koizumi’s leadership.
LDP faction leader Mitsuo Horiuchi said he would resign, as did Seiichi Eto, senior vice minister of health, labour and welfare, Masahiro Morioka, parliamentary secretary at the same ministry, and Makoto Taki, senior vice minister of justice.
In an attempt to quell the rebellion, Mr Koizumi warned his cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday morning that the vote was “crucial”. Chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda delivered a more direct threat, saying cabinet members who voted against the bills would be “severely punished”.
Despite the threats, around 40 LDP members voted against the bills and the final approval was only secured by a narrow margin of 233 votes in favour and 228 against. The LDP holds 250 seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Under Mr Koizumi’s plan, the post office would be split into four units – savings, insurance, mail delivery and counter services – from 2007, with stakes in the units gradually floated in the 10 years to 2017.
The privatisation is controversial within the LDP, which has been using postal savings to fund pet projects and soak up the government’s massive bond issuance, as well as relying on its nationwide network as an unofficial vote-gathering machine.
>By David Ibison in Tokyo
>Published: July 5 2005 08:40 | Last updated: July 5 2005 08:40
Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, fought off a rebellion from within his own party and scored the most significant victory in his 30-year political career on Tuesday after the powerful lower house of parliament approved the privatisation of the state-owned post office.
Mr Koizumi had described the ballot as a vote of confidence in his leadership and threatened to dissolve parliament if lawmakers rejected the privatisation bills. Such a move would have triggered an immediate political crisis and prompted a snap election.
The bills will now go to the upper house of parliament, where a similarly difficult fight is expected. If approved, they will become law.
Japan’s post office is the largest state-owned financial services organisation in the world, overseeing Y350,000bn ($3,130bn) of funds. Its privatisation is a symbol of Mr Koizumi’s drive to reform Japan’s public sector and reduce the government’s paternalist role in the economy.
There was deep opposition from anti-reform elements of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ahead the vote, culminating in the resignations of a number of senior lawmakers on Tuesday morning in protest against Mr Koizumi’s leadership.
LDP faction leader Mitsuo Horiuchi said he would resign, as did Seiichi Eto, senior vice minister of health, labour and welfare, Masahiro Morioka, parliamentary secretary at the same ministry, and Makoto Taki, senior vice minister of justice.
In an attempt to quell the rebellion, Mr Koizumi warned his cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday morning that the vote was “crucial”. Chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda delivered a more direct threat, saying cabinet members who voted against the bills would be “severely punished”.
Despite the threats, around 40 LDP members voted against the bills and the final approval was only secured by a narrow margin of 233 votes in favour and 228 against. The LDP holds 250 seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Under Mr Koizumi’s plan, the post office would be split into four units – savings, insurance, mail delivery and counter services – from 2007, with stakes in the units gradually floated in the 10 years to 2017.
The privatisation is controversial within the LDP, which has been using postal savings to fund pet projects and soak up the government’s massive bond issuance, as well as relying on its nationwide network as an unofficial vote-gathering machine.
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