Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a longtime advocate of postal-service privatization. This week his dream has taken a first step toward coming true. At its first meeting on Monday, the postal committee, an advisory panel to the prime minister, confirmed that the three postal services (mail, savings and insurance) should be separated and privatized. Mr. Naoki Tanaka, who chairs the advisory group, told the meeting that the three government services should be privatized as soon as possible after being transferred to a public corporation.

Privatization is easier said than done. It is an arduous effort that takes a long time. However, private management of postal services is a trend of the times, as was the case with the privatization of Japanese National Railways (now JR), Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation (Japan Tobacco) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (NTT). It is also unavoidable in the context of fiscal and bureaucratic reform and the streamlining of public corporations.

Of the three postal services, savings and insurance compete with private financial institutions and insurance companies. What is more, these two services have continued to expand over the years. It is hard to refute critics who say the postal savings and insurance services are "crowding out" competing private services. This complaint is made all the more reasonable by the fact that the playing field is not level.