U.S. and European insurers continue to try to influence Japan's efforts to privatize Japan Post.[@@]
The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hopes to release a Japan Post privatization plan outine sometime this month.
One section of the outline will deal with privatization of Japan Post's enormous Kampo postal life insurance system.
The American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, has been teaming up with Japanese insurance groups and outside groups for years to ask Japanese officials to apply the same regulatory regime to Kampo that it applies to private life insurers.
Now the ACLI is working with a coalition that includes the Association of British Insurers, London, and the Comite Europeen des Assurances, Paris, to remind Japanese officials that private insurers still want to be a "constructive participant" in the privatization planning process.
