Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), on Wednesday turned down the post of absentee director at Japan Post, a public postal body to be launched next month, the Postal Services Agency said.
After Okuda declined the position, the agency appointed as absentee director Yoshihide Munekuni, who serves as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and Honda Motor Co. The Postal Services Agency will become Japan Post on April 1.
Munekuni, 64, a native of Hiroshima Prefecture and a graduate of Hosei University, will take up the position April 1, the agency said. Munekuni, who joined Honda in 1966, became its chairman in June 1997.
Okuda refused the post saying his chairmanship of Nippon Keidanren may constitute a breach of the Japan Post law, which bans its leadership from serving as executives of political organizations, agency officials said.
Nippon Keidanren is the nation's most powerful business lobby.
Japan Post will take over state-run mail delivery, postal savings and "kampo" life insurance.