A committee of Japan's upper house of parliament approved privatization of the postal service yesterday, sending the package to the full chamber for a vote expected to deliver a crucial victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform plans.
The bills would split up and sell off Japan Post's delivery, savings deposit and insurance services by 2017, creating the world's largest private bank.
Koizumi has argued that the change is needed to put the system's massive amount of deposits at the disposal of private investors.
The powerful lower house of parliament approved the package on Tuesday, and the upper house was expected to follow suit later yesterday.
Even without upper house support, the ruling coalition's two-thirds majority in the lower house means it can enact bills on its own.
The upper house, which Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) dominates only with the help of a coalition partner, rejected the package in August, prompting the prime minister to call snap lower-house elections that he billed as a referendum on postal reform.
But the LDP's landslide victory in the Sept. 11 elections has convinced some former opponents to support the project.
"Japanese voters have shown in the last elections their deep understanding toward Prime Minister Koizumi who says pos-tal reform is the core of his reform program," Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the LDP, said before the vote.
Heizo Takenaka, economics minister and architect of the reform proposal, told the committee after its approval of privatization that the government was determined to do all it can to push through reform.
"We will make our utmost efforts, respecting your strong will," Takenaka said.
The legislation would start the division of Japan Post in late 2007.
Proponents argue the reform would make more efficient use of Japan Post's ?330 trillion (US$3 trillion) in savings and insurance deposits, while streamlining the country's enormous delivery service.
Reform opponents fear the bills will lead to job losses and would put ordinary people's savings in the hands of untrustworthy private investors.
They also argue that privatization will lead to a reduction in delivery services in sparsely populated rural areas.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS