June 12, 2010

Kamei Shizuka, head of the People’s New Party (PNP), on June 11 resigned as Financial Services and Postal Reform Minister, claiming that his party’s coalition partner Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) broke a promise to enact a postal reform bill within the current Diet session.

Until early in the morning of June 11, the two parties continued discussing how to deal with the bill. The PNP was calling for an extended session of the Diet in order to enact the bill to revise the postal privatization policy with the aim to attract voters by its accomplishment in the upcoming House of Councilors election campaign because Kamei was an opponent of postal privatization at the time of the Koizumi government.

The DPJ insisted that it cannot respond to the PNP request because it wants to hold the election while the public Kan Cabinet support rate is high. The PNP-DPJ collision clearly shows that they are only looking out for their own party interests.

Kamei at a news conference held in the PNP headquarters said, “The promise I made, as the head of the PNP, was broken and I am responsible for failing to hold Prime Minister Kan to this promise.”
- Akahata, June 12, 2010