Parliament enacted laws today to privatise Japan's postal system, including the world's biggest savings bank, a reform Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has long advocated as vital to make the economy more efficient.
The upper house, whose rejection of the bills in August triggered a lower house general election which the ruling camp won hands down, approved the legislation by a vote of 134 to 100. The more powerful lower chamber had adopted the legislation on Tuesday.
Privatising the postal system has been the cornerstone of Koizumi's agenda to wean the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from its addiction to wasteful public spending that won votes but bred scandals and inflated government debt.
Under the legislation, Japan Post, which has 25,000 post offices and some $3 trillion in assets, will be split into four entities and privatised in 2007. A new holding company will sell off the postal savings and life insurance businesses by 2017.
