It would be better for the Transport Ministry to merge with the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry than with the Construction Ministry, Transport Minister Takao Fujii said Tuesday.
Reorganization of these ministries is one of the major focuses of the ongoing debate on administrative reform. The idea of merging with the posts ministry surfaced after a government panel on administrative reform, in an interim report compiled in September, proposed combining the Transport Ministry with the Construction Ministry and the National Land Agency.
Fujii noted that the merger with the Construction Ministry would create a huge ministry to handle public work projects, which is not necessarily consistent with the reform policy of creating a slimmer, more efficient government.
"It would be easier to obtain public understanding by combining with the administration on telecommunications rather than making a huge ministry on the arrangement of national land," Fujii said.