A plan to streamline the bureaucracy by cutting 5.7 percent of the central government workforce and a plan to create a new financial institution in October 2008 under an overhaul of public financial institutions were approved Tuesday by two separate government panels.
The personnel cuts are expected to be endorsed Friday by the Cabinet, while bills on the financial institutions are being drafted for submission to the Diet this fall, government officials said.
The headquarters for administrative reform and the headquarters for official financial institutions reform, both headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, adopted an outline for the personnel cuts and a "road map" for government-run financial institution reform at a joint meeting Tuesday morning.