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Crucial moment for Japanese postal unions Union Network International. 8 de junio de 2005. Postal unions are busy lobbying and briefing lawmakers as the Japanese Parliament approaches decision time on controversial plans to privatise Japan Post. A vote deadline of June 19 is fast approaching for a special Parliamentary Committee with opposition to privatisation coming from within the ruling Liberal Democratic party as well as from the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan. The main enthusiast for privatisation is Prime Minister Koizumi but he has powerful internal opposition led by Seika Noda, a former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Japan's two postal unions - the JPU and Zenyusei - are working closely together in the campaign to heads off privatisation, which threatens universal postal and financial services currently provided across the country. Services in Japan's mountainous and rural areas are particularly at risk under the Koizumi plan to split Japan Post into four different operations - Counters, Mail, Savings, Insurance - and sell them off. The government wants to start privatisation in 2007 and complete the process by 2017. But savings and insurance could well be split off and sold first. The Prime Minister has told Parliament that 70,000 postal jobs could go as a result of privatisation. Postal unions are campaigning with community groups to keep the four sections of Japan Post's operations together to protect the provision of postal and financial services to all citizens wherever they live in the country. Internal opposition has prompted the Prime Minister to threaten calling an election if he doesn't get Parliamentary backing for his plan by June 19 - but there is already speculation he may extend the deadline until August. "This is a crucial moment for our Japanese postal unions,"
said UNI Tokyo's Eichi Ito. The JPU's International Secretary | |||||||||