Junichiro Koizumi's inauguration as prime minister might have lifted the hopes of those who seek the privatization of the nation's postal services.
But Toranosuke Katayama, who was reappointed posts minister in the Koizumi Cabinet, is wary of, if not outright opposed to, the idea.
Katayama remarked that he will simply follow the existing law, which involves the transfer of the government's postal service operations to a state-run public corporation to be set up in fiscal 2003.