The Japanese Communist Party plans to call on other parties to join hands to scrap the postal privatization bills that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi aims to resubmit to the Diet after Sunday's general election, JCP chief Kasuo Shii said Monday.
"It is likely that we will be asked whether to approve Koizumi's postal privatization bills in the special Diet session to follow the election," Shii said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, apparently assuming that Koizumi's ruling coalition will retain power.
"I would like to call on all parties that are opposed to Koizumi's privatization bills for a joint parliamentary struggle to oppose and scrap the bills," he said.
Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner, New Komeito, plan to resubmit the bills to privatize Japan Post, possibly by amending them, if they retain their combined majority in the Lower House.
Koizumi dissolved the Lower House Aug. 8 for the snap election as the bills were voted down in the House of Councilors with a larger-than-expected number of LDP members joining the opposition bloc in casting dissenting votes.
Unlike the JCP, the Democratic Party of Japan is not opposed to the direction of privatization, but they can still cooperate in taking issue with the specific bills, Shii said.