Privatized postal services will do only harm to people -- Akahata editorial, April 15 (excerpts)
The Koizumi Cabinet is rushing to privatize the postal services in 2007 as promised by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro. In late April, a privatization task force will be set up and the prime minister's advisory council on economic and fiscal policy will complete a mid-term report on privatization by the end of April.
The draft of the interim report entitled the "significance of privatization" states that the postal privatization will apply market forces to the window, mail service, postal savings, and the post office life insurance services to operate under the same management conditions as those in the private sector to increase business efficiency and make inroads into other promising businesses.
The reason why the post office was capable of operating at far lower costs than major banks and without using tax money is that it operates mail, postal savings and post office insurance. If the three functions are divided, inefficiency will come in and make the maintenance of the previous undertakings impossible.
The report emphasizes the need to take away the state guarantees over postal savings and the post office life insurance. Because postal savings and the post office insurance have state guarantees, people feel secured in using such savings and insurance. Because these are guaranteed by the state, the post office doe not need to hoard capital from funds deposited by people and from investment profits and can return the profit to users and to the society.
The combined operation of the three functions and the state guarantees form the economic basis for providing the people with mail service anywhere in Japan at low rates. To take away this base will undermine the operation of post offices in depopulated areas and special postal services that favor periodicals and academic publications.
The call for dividing the three functions and abolishing the state guarantees is what the National Bankers Association is asking for in order to weaken and eliminate the postal savings system, their competitor. Financial circles are waiting for privatized post offices to use them as wickets to sell their financial goods.
The Koizumi Cabinet cannot demonstrate what benefit the people will actually get from the privatization because the plan for privatizing postal services gives priority to the benefit of major banks. (end)
Privatized postal services will do only harm to people -- Akahata editorial, April 15 (excerpts)