Japanese

"Postal Administration Privatization"

A dismissal of the House of Representatives was performed taking advantage of the postal administration privatization bill having been rejected in the House of Councilors, and a general election will be held on the 11th of this month.
It is striking that the argument about the pros and cons of postal services has brought not only confrontation of the governing and opposition parties but also division within the Liberal Democratic Party. Since the Liberal Democratic Party leadership did not carry out authorizing a opponent group assembly members, the unprecedented situation where the Liberal Democratic Party officially ticketed candidate and the ex Liberal Democratic Party opponent group candidate fight for a seat in the same constituency has been generated. First of all, the purpose of privatization is to promote economic revitalization by stopping that no less than 330 trillion of Postal Life Insurance and Postal Savings funds have appropriated for special public corporations and government financial agencies, such as the Road Public Corporation and the Social Insurance Agency, as a financial-investment-and-loan fund, and making it flow back in a market.

In response, the opponent group's opinion to it is that the number of unprofitable post offices will be reduced and the post offices of underpopulated districts will be omitted under the management of private company that will put priority on the profit. Of course, it is sound argument that highly public service should be maintained in provincial cities.

However, I cannot help but shake my head that they oppose privatization with that reason only. Although opponent groups often uses the word "local omission," but is it really necessary for local activation to build roads that are rarely used and useless airports that require huge amount of money. There, we could see through the speculation of the companies and individuals that have made profits under the present system and the politicians that represent those groups to protect vested interests. First of all, I think that bureaucrats that don't have cost mind cannot promote revitalization of local communities. It is a bureaucrats feature that they are not pursued their responsibility even if they commits faults that they did for the Expressway Public Corporation, Narita Airport, the Social Insurance Agency that correspond to the failure of the company. It is amazing fact that it is widely different from the so-called corporate governance. Of course in the country of excess concentration of population and industry in the Metropolitan areas like Japan, it is hard thing to require local communities for self-support. However, there are not a few entities that are performing sound management, such as several soccer teams of J-League and Asahiyama Zoo.

The most important thing is that the Local Government Unit acquires business sense and spirit. For the local activation, it is required for the government to prepare a minimum safety net. In this election, there is indication that problems more important than postal administration privatization, such as a pensionary problem and a problem of diplomacy, are neglected. However, this election should turn into an election which probably asks public opinion about deregulation for the first time.

2005.09.09