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Former Japanese finance minister to be tapped as Japan Post chief
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-21 11:37

TOKYO: State Minister in charge of Postal Reform Shizuka Kamei said Wednesday that he will name former Vice Finance Minister Jiro Saito as president of Japan Post Holdings Co. , succeeding Yoshifumi Nishikawa.

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At a press conference, Kamei said that he and 73-year-old Saito, who is president and chief executive officer of Tokyo Financial Exchange Inc., "share almost the same idea on drastically reviewing Japan Post."

Kamei made the remarks after Nishikawa expressed his intention to step down Tuesday with cabinet members against him and a policy reversal nearing.

At a press conference Tuesday, Nishikawa said that he felt "a wide gap" between the government's postal reform policy and what he has done and what he intended to do for postal privatization.

The Japan Post chief said he would tender his resignation at the board of directors' meeting on October 28.

Since the state-run Japan Post was privatized in 2007, Nishikawa has headed the group, which has about 240,000 employees.

Under the new basic policies adopted at Tuesday's cabinet meeting to review postal privatization, the government will consider legally obliging Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance to offer "universal services" throughout the nation.

The government will also consider using the nationwide network of about 24,000 post offices as "bases" to rectify widening gaps between rural and urban areas due to aging population.