Japan Post, which holds a quarter of the nation's savings, will have to compete with banks, insurers and other deposit-takers starting in 2007, said Heizo Takenaka, minister for economy and fiscal policy.
"We'll be privatizing Japan Post in 2007," Takenaka said on state-run NHK television.
"Privatizing means that it has to compete completely on its own with the private sector," Takenaka said.
Japan Post, which doesn't pay any taxes, will have to compete like any other bank or insurer in the country for the benefit of the public, Takenaka said, without giving details. The state-run service, which combines mail delivery with selling insurance and government-guaranteed savings, may have to break up, said Japan's guild of corporate executives.
monopoly
Japan Post "is too big" and is almost a monopoly, said Kakutaro Kitashiro, the chairman of IBM Japan Ltd and also head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. Unless its businesses are split up, "the private sector won't be able to compete," he said.
Japan's postal service held ?208 trillion (US$1.91 trillion) of savings at the end of March, ?124 trillion of insurance policies, ?110 trillion of government bonds -- and it operates more branches than the nation's banks.
It must be sold because its inefficiencies are costing the public, said the 53-year old Takenaka, who has been leading the government's push to turn Japan Post into a private company.
The Japanese Bankers Association, a group representing the nation's lenders, proposed in February that Japan Post terminate some of its deposit-taking services, limit the amount of savings it can take and discontinue offering loans.
taxes
The government may end its policy of exempting the postal service from paying taxes and may alter its collection of insurance premiums, the Nikkei English News said in March.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been planning to reorganize and sell Japan Post since he came into office in 2001.
Takenaka did not provide any details on how the sale of Japan Post would take place.
The nation's post offices will remain, he said.
The public wants the postal service to improve its services, extend the hours of the post office outlets and cut costs, Takenaka said.
"We have to clarify what demands there are from the public toward the postal savings service, what abilities Japan Post has in the area and secure a business model that can endure," he said on the NHK program.
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
RSS