Oct. 1, 2007 (LPAC) - October 1 marked the implementation of phase one of the disastrous privatization of the Japan Post, implemented as a result of a campaign waged by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The huge postal system was today officially divided up into four parts - banking, mail delivery, insurance and counter service. The bank, with $3 trillion in savings, will be the world's largest. The vast majority of Japan's citizens hold their savings in the Japan Post saving bank, which has invested the money primarily in guaranteed government bonds, or in infrastructure development in regional areas. Koizumi played on the idea that privatization, through "competition," will lead to higher interest rates for depositors, while the financial oligarchy is drooling over the loot which can be dragged into global speculation.

The election last week of traditionalist Yasuo Fukuda as Prime Minister, following the resignation of Koizumi's protege Shinzo Abe, has sent a shiver through the blue veins of the financial oligarchs, in part because they fear he will slow down the privatization process. The schedule calls for the four divided sections to go on the market in 2009, but this could be stalled - or reversed - by government action.