WORLD BRIEFING | ASIA; Japan: No Sale of Postal Shares

Japan passed a law on Friday to stop the privatization of the nation's huge postal service, a symbolic move to roll back the small-government policies of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi earlier this decade. The law halts the planned sale of shares of the postal service, which is also one of the world's largest banks, with $3.4 trillion in assets. The Democratic Party, whose election victory last summer ended a half-century of Liberal Democratic rule, campaigned on canceling the privatization plan, which was widely seen here as depriving Japan's rural areas of banking services hastening their economic decline.

Published: December 5, 2009

Source: query.nytimes.com

08.10.2010