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.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image