ニュース 2009/01/07 DPJ Statement on the Sale of the Kanpo no Yado by Japan Post Kazuhiro Haraguchi DPJ Next Cabinet Next Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications On December 26, 2008, Japan Post signed a contract to hand over all of the 71 Kanpo no Yado inns located around Japan to Orix Real Estate Corporation. Under the contract, Japan Post Holdings Company Ltd will be split up and a new company responsible for taking on the whole Kanpo no Yado business will be established. Shares in the new company will then be sold. This process requires the approval of Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications. However, there are many problems associated with this contract. Firstly, Yoshihiko Miyauchi, who supported the Koizumi administration and worked as the chairman of Committee on Regulatory Reform and Privatization, is known to have supported and pushed for the privatization of Japan's post office. Mr. Miyauchi is Chairman of Orix Real Estate Corporation, the party which will purchase the shares of the new company, and the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, who has jurisdiction over this affair, has also expressed doubts over this arrangement, which is extremely unlikely to be accepted by the public. Furthermore, detailed information on the sale, such as the successful bid price and the assessed value of the assets to be sold, has not been made public. The assets of Japan Post, which is wholly owned by the state, are the assets of the Japanese people. Kanpo no Yado inns represent a portion of those assets, and it is therefore completely unacceptable that a sale of such unprecedented size is taking place in such an opaque fashion. As well as calling for the full disclosure of information relating to this contract, the DPJ also calls on the government and Japan Post to explain clearly in the Diet and other appropriate forums the developments that led to the contract being signed, who was the prime mover behind the contract and why such developments are taking place now.