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Japan Post
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==Postal privatization== The company was born on April 2, 2003, as a government-owned corporation, replacing the old {{nihongo|Postal Services Agency of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications|Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications]]|総務省郵政事業庁|Sōmu-shō Yūsei Jigyōchō}}. Japan Post's formation was part of then [[Prime Minister of Japan|Prime Minister]] [[Junichiro Koizumi]]'s long-term reform plan and was intended to culminate in the full [[privatization]] of the postal service. The privatization plan encountered both support and opposition across the Japanese political spectrum, including the two largest parties, the [[Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)|LDP]] and the [[Democratic Party of Japan|DPJ]]. Opponents claimed that the move would result in the closure of post offices and job losses at the nation's largest employer. However, proponents contended that privatization would allow for a more efficient and flexible use of the company's funds, which would help revitalize Japan's economy. Proponents also claimed that Japan Post had become an enormous source of corruption and patronage. Koizumi called the privatization a major element in his efforts to curb government spending and the growth of the national debt. Most opposition parties supported postal privatization in principle, but criticized Koizumi's bill. Many considered the bill deeply flawed because it provided for too long a period for full implementation and included too many loopholes that might create a privatization in name only. In September 2003, Koizumi's cabinet proposed splitting Japan Post into four separate companies: a bank, an insurance company, a postal service company, and a fourth company to handle the post offices as retail outlets for the other three entities. Each of these companies would be privatized in April 2007. In 2005, the [[lower house|Lower House]] of the [[Japanese Diet|Japanese legislature]] passed the bill to complete this reform by a handful of votes, with many members of Koizumi's LDP voting against their own government. The bill was subsequently defeated in the [[House of Councillors|Upper House]] because of scores of defections from the ruling coalition. Koizumi immediately dissolved the lower house and scheduled [[2005 Japan general election|a general election]] to be held on September 11, 2005. He declared the election to be a referendum on postal privatization. Koizumi won this election, gaining the necessary [[supermajority]] in the lower house, which he took as a mandate for reform. The final version of the bill to privatize Japan Post in 2007 was passed in October 2005.<ref>Takahara, "All Eyes on Japan Post"{{cite news | first = Anthony | last = Faiola | title = Japan Approves Postal Privatization | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101402163.html | newspaper = Washington Post | page = A10 | date = 15 October 2005 | access-date = 9 February 2007}}</ref> It officially abolished Japan Post, with its branches broken up into a [[Shareholder|shareholding company]] and four other companies for postal service, postal savings, postal life insurance, and post office service networks.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Contemporary Government Reform in Japan: The Dual State in Flux|url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarygove00kawa|url-access=limited|last=Kawabata|first=Eiji|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2006|isbn=9781403971128|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarygove00kawa/page/n100 84]}}</ref> The legislation provided a 10-year transition period wherein the savings and insurance companies would be fully privatized while the government would still continue to be involved with the three other companies.<ref name=":0" /> The law also stated that Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance are to go public in 2010 and their shares would be made available to the market two years later.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Asia's Turning Point: An Introduction to Asia's Dynamic Economies at the Dawn of the New Century|last1=Tselichtchev|first1=Ivan|last2=Debroux|first2=Philippe|publisher=John Wiley & sons|year=2012|isbn=9781118580622|location=Hoboken}}</ref><ref name="postandparcel">{{Cite web|date=2021-06-16|title=Japan Post to deliver mail by drone by 2023|url=https://postandparcel.info/138625/news/e-commerce/japan-post-to-deliver-mail-by-drone-by-2023/|access-date=2021-07-15|website=Post & Parcel|language=en-US}}</ref> However, the majority privatisation process, which nonetheless saw the Japanese government still maintain control of one-third of the company's stock, was completed in October 2021.<ref name=someprivate /><ref name=mostnotprivate /> The Japanese government also still remains the company's largest stockholder.<ref name=someprivate /><ref name=mostnotprivate />
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