The Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry will begin opening its mail service monopoly to private businesses in fiscal 2003, when a new public entity will take charge of the state-run postal service, ministry officials said Sunday.
The Postal Services Agency's monopoly on the national mail service has drawn sharp criticism from parcel delivery firms and other businesses who want the government to open it up to private-sector firms in the name of reform.
The ministry plans to hammer out a specific timetable for the privatization of the mailing service by the end of this year so it can be incorporated into a bill for establishing the public entity that will be presented to an ordinary Diet session in January, the officials said.
The ministry will at first attempt to limit the opening of the mailing service out of concern it could undermine the financial health of the public entity. The loss-making mail service depends heavily on direct mail for its earnings, they said.
The privatization of the postal service is one of the key reforms initiated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi under his slogan, "Everything that can be done by the private sector should be open."