Going postal: Lawmaker’s suicide chills Japan’s crappy privatisation drive
残念…電話ã«æ®‹ã™ãƒ¡ãƒƒã‚»ãƒ¼ã‚¸ã‚’今æ¥ã‚‹ã“ã¨ãŒã§ããªã„。(”Sorry, I can’t come to the phone right now, please leave a message.”)
Lawamaker’s death darkens Japan’s political drama
TOKYO …Koizumi has made the legislation to privatise the postal delivery, savings and insurance system, including the world’s biggest bank, the centrepiece of his reform platform.
But many lawmakers in his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have relied on rural postmasters to mobilise voters and on the postal savings funds for public works to keep constituencies happy….In a possible sign of the mounting pressures, an LDP lower house member was found hanged at his Tokyo home on Monday…
Yoji Nagaoka, 54, opposed the bills at an LDP party meeting but voted in favour in parliament… Nagaoka’s secretary was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying he had been upset by the fact that some weekly magazines had called him a traitor for his actions.
“Temporarily Indisposed” is best way to describe Japan’s postal privatisation bills.
As far as I’m concerned, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is even a better approach.
Japan Post has ALWAYS done good by me: I can stuff money in a genkin futo envelope, post it and never worry–I’ve mailed $6,000 that way. Sure, sure, Japan Post is expensive… but my office is open 24/7 to pick up packages, they offer the best rates on small foreign exchange amounts and they still come to my door on the farm to deliver the mail. Of course I oppose the privatisation bills to split up Japan Post. Postal privatisation means my farm will be left without a local “bank” and undelivered packages will take a 20km drive for me to pick’em up.
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