More than 70 percent of firms believe privatizing Japan Post is a necessary part of state restructuring plans, according to a survey released Wednesday by credit research agency Teikoku Databank.
The survey comes ahead of Sunday's election, which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said is to give him the political backing to pursue his postal privatization plans.
The poll found 73.6 percent of the respondents believe postal privatization is necessary, with some saying it would lead to other budgetary and political reforms.
At the other end, 7.8 percent said privatization was unnecessary.
An agricultural wholesaler who supported privatizing the postal service said the government should use postal reform to move the money in postal savings into the private sector and markets to help revitalize the economy.
"While the survey indicates a strong hope that postal privatization will stimulate financial markets, it also shows that companies are closely watching where the vast amount of money (in postal savings) will go," Teikoku said. It carried out the poll on the Internet Aug. 23-31 with 10,566 firms responding.