Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's advisory panel on postal services is set to issue a report featuring proposals about their future management, such as full privatization, the panel chief said Monday.
Releasing an outline of the report that will be submitted to the prime minister by September, panel chief and economic critic Naoki Tanaka said various types of privatization will be suggested.
It is unclear whether the panel will be able to complete the report by the above deadline, however, as some panelists are still reluctant to rush discussions on the issue of postal privatization.
The proposals will include establishment of a corporation wholly or mostly owned by the government and termination of the postal savings and "kampo" insurance policies, Tanaka said.
He said panel held informal, closed-doors discussions while the report was being drafted.
If the government decides to privatize the postal services, the panel will urge it to pay special attention to how existing post offices contribute to local communities and to use the existing network, Tanaka said.
The privatization issue has brought Koizumi, a longtime advocate of postal privatization, into conflict with veteran ruling lawmakers who have vested interests in the business.
The three postal services will be taken over by a public corporation next April under a law enacted by the Diet last week.
Koizumi said Thursday the postal services must be privatized in the future through the operations of the public corporation.
But some heavyweights in Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party are dragging their feet on privatization because the government-subsidized monopoly has been a well-organized source of votes.