Privatising post end of a Japanese tradition

Dressed in the standard salaryman uniform of dark suit, tie and shiny black shoes, Yasuo Tokuoka does not look much like the minor aristocrat he is.

The fifth in his family to hold the title of postmaster - in a tradition going back more than 100 years - he is as respected as a mayor or parish priest, running one of the busiest institutions in town.

He considers what he does more of a calling than a job.

"I feel a very strong sense of responsibility to the people around here."

Japanese towns don't get much more one-horse than Hanbara, a dying hamlet of 350 households, a shrine, noodle restaurant and a couple of struggling businesses 97km west of Tokyo.

Yet, somehow this post office and 24,700 others are part of a big political and economic story.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's snap election hangs on his plan to privatise Japan Post.

For more than 50 years, as Japan has grown into the world's second richest economy, post office branches have accepted deposits, and today sit on the largest single pool of capital in the world - US$3 trillion ($4.27 trillion).

The money is owned by the 85 per cent of Japanese households that hold a post office account, and has been used to build roads, dams and bridges.

But it has also been, in effect, a giant slush fund. The post office provided construction firms and other small businesses with non-collateral loans, brokered by men such as Tokuoka, who harvested in return millions of votes for the ruling party.

"We're totally opposed to privatisation," says Tokuoka. "It will destroy a culture of mutual help built up over years."

There is a feeling here of betrayal by a Prime Minister intent on importing an ideology that is un-Japanese.

At post offices like this, time seems to stand still. Customers and staff treat each other with an old-world courtesy, bowing under a portrait of Hisoka Maejima, who founded Japan Post in 1887.

The branches pay virtually no interest on deposits and staff have jobs for life. In return, they perform tasks such as hand-delivering pensions to bedridden customers and providing loans.

"What will happen to us if privatisation goes ahead?" asks Tokuoka. "I can never accept this plan."

- INDEPENDENT