Dear Paul,

In response to your query:

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You will recall that it was Abe who as prime minister in 2006 allowed the postal rebels back into the party (I think it was six of them), which was the first nail in his coffin at that time. Now, it would seem that Zentoku is well and truly back in the LDP fold. During the Hatoyama administration, Ozawa Ichiro tried to win them over as a support base for the DPJ in the lead-up to the 2010 UH election when he was DPJ S-G. At the time, he aligned himself with the policies of the MInister of Postal 'Reform' and PNP leader, Kamei Shizuka, whose plan it was to scale back the ongoing process of postal privatisation. Rick Katz wrote about this at the time on SSJ-Forum, particularly about Ozawa's support for Kamei's demand to double the maximum deposit at Japan Post savings banks etc. etc.
Ozawa later provided guarantees that the postal 'reform' laws would pass the Diet prior to the UH election, addressing a gathering of 7000 commissioned postmasters in Nagoya. Ozawa's rush to give this commitment was to ensure that those postal votes would flow into the party in the election. At a later press conference, he said, 'Postal reform is a product of Koizumi's fake reforms. Visiting postal offices across the nation, I have heard about all sorts of terrible conditions..The Koizumi postal reforms have not improved convenience or provided any benefits to the people. I have promised to fix the situation. It is my responsibility to make utmost efforts to have the bill enacted during the current session.'

What I read into Zentoku's great victory in this election is that there will be extremely tough negotiations over postal-related issues in the TPP.

Best wishes,

Aurelia
UNSW, Canberra