Pen/Insular_Notes

Jonathan Dresner at Frog in a Well started an open thread on the Japanese election results, to which I added this comment/question:

I really just have some questions about this as I’m rather ignorant about Japanese politics. The principal one is: what are Koizumi’s reasons for wanting to privatise the Postal Savings system? My initial guesses would be:
a) He’s a fully paid-up neo-liberal ideologue and believes that the private sector is better no matter what
b) This is some way of gaining the upper hand in some sort of intra-ruling class conflict, ie the postal savings system represents a vested interest that Koizumi wants to crush
c) He (or rather his economic advisors) really believe that privatisation is the best option for the Japanese economy
Or perhaps some combination of the above.
Sorry to pre-empt any answers like this, but I just wanted to throw out a few ideas.
My other question would be, if postal privatisation is quite unpopular (which I believe is the case), why did the Japanese people vote Koizumi back in?

Unfortunately the hoped for discussion hasn’t materialised yet over there. But in the meantime I found an interesting article at Asia Times by Hisane Masaki which is mainly focused on Koizumi’s foreign policy challenges. Interesting, but I’m more keen on finding out what lies behind the whole postal reform business. The author does have this though, which at least goes some way to clarifying things:

Postal reform is the key component of an overall reform. Koizumi wants to privatize the savings and insurance programs of Japan Post, which has US$3 trillion in deposits. Reform would seek to put that money into more sound investments, presumably sparking a boost to Japan’s economy. Japan has the second largest economy but it has stagnated for years.

Koizumi’s successful election strategy tapped into public concern that fat government bureaucracies were sapping the country’s economic growth as an aging population worried about how citizens would be taken care of when they retire. Koizumi, who is certain to be reelected prime minister in a special Diet session to be convened later this month, wanted to halt the use of postal savings as an LDP slush fund for public works projects, which critics say were sources of waste and corruption.

Any contributions welcome, either here or there.