Senior officials of the Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Friday on a plan to transfer the oil stockpiling operations of Japan National Oil Corp. to the private sector following the liquidation of the government-affiliated agency.
The agreement came at a meeting of senior LDP members, including Mitsuo Horiuchi, chairman of the party's General Council, and Taro Aso, head of the Policy Research Council.
Horiuchi proposed that an organization be established to take over JNOC's assets and sell them to the private sector within three years.
Horiuchi's stance clashes with the views of Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry, who insists that the government should continue to play a role in any body that takes over the operations of JNOC.