At a press conference following his Cabinet reshuffle last month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dubbed his new Cabinet as one "to realize privatization of the postal service." He made it clear that the reshuffle had been his own work, indicating his determination to carry out the privatization. Mr. Koizumi defined privatization as the "biggest reform in Japan since the Meiji Era."

State Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Heizo Takenaka, who has also taken on the job of minister in charge of postal service reform, was equally glib, proclaiming that "privatization is the mainstay of structural reform."

Will postal privatization really have such a major effect on people's lives and economic activity? Private companies are already busy entering the postal business in the field of parcel delivery, and deregulation in the field of letters is a possibility, too. It is surely worthwhile, but suggestions that the national economy will suffer a damaging blow unless the nation carries out all-or-nothing privatization are way off the mark.