FRANKFURT (Kyodo) Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka met with Deutsche Post AG President and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Zumwinkel on Thursday to discuss Germany's experiences in postal privatization as Japan seeks to privatize its own postal service in 2007.
At a press conference after the meeting in Bonn, Takenaka said he asked Zumwinkel about how Germany balanced efficiency with uniform postal services nationwide.
"I felt it was important to win the support of the public that privatization will improve the quality of postal services," Takenaka said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged to privatize the nation's postal services in April 2007. Presently, services are provided by Japan Post, a state corporation created last April to take over the Postal Services Agency's mail, postal savings and life insurance services.
Asked about the direction of postal privatization, Takenaka said that authorities must discuss how to integrate each of the three functions of postal services -- mail, telecommunication and postal savings -- into the market economy.
Deutsche Post, launched in 1990 to take over the mail sector of the three postal services run by the government, is widely regarded as a success story in postal privatization.