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Govt may freeze start of sale of Japan Post -Kyodo

Reuters - Friday, June 26

(For more stories on Japanese politics click [ID:nPOLJP]

TOKYO, June 26 - Japan should consider freezing the stock market listing of units of Japan Post, which the government had planned for 2010, Kyodo news agency quoted Internal Affairs Minister Tsutomu Sato as saying on Friday.

Allegations of mishandling of the privatisation of Japan's postal services have fuelled doubts about the plan and led to the resignation of Sato's predecessor this month, damaging support for the already unpopular LDP ahead of an election [ID:nT328526].

Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi led the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide election victory in 2005 in what he pitched as a referendum on postal privatisation as a symbol of market-friendly reforms.

Japan Post, a state-owned holding company, is supposed to list shares of two of four units of the former post office on the stock exchange as early as 2010, one for banking and one for insurance, and sell its stakes by 2017.

"It's something that should be considered," Sato told reporters when asked about freezing the flotation, Kyodo said.

Japan's opposition Democratic Party, which polls show has a good chance of ousting the LDP in an election that must be held by October, has said it would revise postal privatisation plans.

The global financial crisis has sparked calls in other countries for a rethink of postal privatisations as governments take a bigger role in economies.

Even Prime Minister Taro Aso said earlier this year that he had opposed postal privatisation, sparking an uproar before he backtracked. [ID:nT346713]

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