A government panel discussing privatization plans for highway corporations has been meeting stiff resistance from a predictable source: the corporations themselves. They have held back some of the financial data requested by panel members, thus effectively blocking progress toward highway reform, a priority commitment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
The corporations have a duty to cooperate with the commission, a third-party body established by law to promote privatization of the Japan Highway Public Corp. and three other corporations that build and manage motorways across the country. Without the necessary reference data, the commission cannot begin to make an objective analysis, an essential precondition for making recommendations.
The level of frustration among commission members increased recently when they openly demanded the resignation of JHPC President Haruho Fujii. The corporation has been criticized for refusing to produce, among other things, profit-and-loss figures for national expressways and other major toll roads -- data indispensable for an accurate review of the deficit-ridden highway system.
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