Special Post Office

The Slogan ¡ÉPrivatization of Japan public post office¡É led Liberal Democratic Party to

achieved an unprecedented triumph in 44th general election of house of representatives.

Privatization has been the most important policy for Prime Minister Koizumi since he became

a politician.

Because it had been a sanctuary for almost 40 years and the strongest profit group for

pork-barrel politicians like late Prime Minister Tanaka. Why was post office so powerful that

any politician hadn¡Çt been able to reform? The answer is ¡ÈSpecial post office¡É.

What is ¡ÈSpecial post office¡É

¡¦Special post office is a type of branches of Japan public post office which was created

in 1871 as universal service especially for country areas. There are three types of

offices : general, small and special. (It consists of 75% of all.) There isn¡Çt clear

definition of it, but it is advantaged in three points.

First is employment system. Any people who are above 25 years old can apply for chief of

special post office. Of course, their status is special public servant. Though entrance

exam is opened as principle, it rarely has been done except for relatives of incumbent chief.

Exam procedure is opaque, so it is often criticized as ¡Èsuccess system.¡É ( In fact

¡ÈUnion of special post office chief¡É says incumbents should find their successor by

themselves. It has never mentioned ¡Èfair exam.¡É) Furthermore chiefs can decide when they

retire. Very few, if any, chiefs retire in 60 years old, so their accumulated retirement

pension is by far higher than general public servants¡Ç ones.

Second is office. There are two types of offices. One is national office which is

constructed or repaired by national money. The other is private office. Chiefs of special

post office who own their real estates lend them to Japan public post office.

Generally speaking, the latter is ¡Èsuccess office.¡É

Most of chiefs borrow money from union to construct their own offices. Main revenue of

union is payment of special post office. They don¡Çt have to pay real estates tax, so their

business environment is advantaged.

¡¦ Third is environment of workers. Even though they don¡Çt need many workers, they can

decide how many people to hire. ( Limitation is usually six. There are 270,000 workers in

post office. More than half are special post officers. ) Chiefs can make labour rules or

works to some extent at their will. Most workers are required to enter union, and their works

contain something unrelated to their usual ones. Some officers are ordered to gather

information about their districts and give their information to union. As a result, unions

become ¡Èmachine of ballots¡É by using their information.

Privatization of post office

¡¦The reasons that Prime Minister Koizumi is motivated to privatize post office are two.

First is strong union of post officers. LDP ¡¡eval¡¡uated their information, so they have been

favorable to post offices. It is said that their ballots are more than 1million in Japan.

Pro post office politicians who most belonged to former Hashimoto faction disturbed many

attempt to streamline them. Koizumi was a victim of Hashimoto faction, so he hated post

office.

Second is deposit and insurance of post office. Their sums are 350trillion yen, and its

money has sustained corruption. Semi-governmental companies like Japan highway company which

are main money resource to LDP borrows money from post office with low interest and long due

date, so their payback are slower, lower compared to private sectors standard. Therefore,

such companies don¡Çt pursue profit, suffer from accumulated debt they can¡Çt pay back

forever.

I would like to appreciate Koizumi¡Çs attempt, because this problem has been sanctuary to

politicians for 100 years. I hope his plan success without any hitch.