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┃ Multi Lingual Internet Mail Magazine
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★ jp-Swiss-journal ━ Vol. 67 - August 15, 2005 (Swiss Time)
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【 目次 / INDEX /
INHALTSVERZEICHNIS 】
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【J】
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郵政民営化を問う？衆院選'05
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明子 ヒューリマン
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【E】
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Lower
House election 2005,
a call for the postal privatization?
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Akiko Hürlimann
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□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【 日本語 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□
郵政民営化を問う？衆院選'05
明子 ヒューリマン
8月9日に衆議院で否決された郵政民営化法案はスイスのメディアでも広く関心を持って伝えられた。特にドイツ語有力紙 <Tagesanzeiger> 紙は、9日の1面下段に「ライオンに反抗」と小泉首相の写真を大きく掲載して詳細に報じた。又翌10日にも「日本のライオン小泉純一郎またもや吼える」とライオン宰相はスイスでも定着したかのようだ。
この法案の焦点の一つは郵便局の全国一律のサーヴィス維持。だが、離島や過疎地への郵便物の扱いについては、はすでに下請け業者が請け負っているので困らないと聞く。JRが地方の小さな駅では民間人に委託運営されているのと同じだ。実際のところ、この法案には兆円単位の基金が積まれるよう盛り込まれていて、過保護な扱いとの批判がある。現にクロネコのロゴでお馴染みの民間の「ヤマト運輸
http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/
」はどんな過疎地にも離島にも荷物を届けているし、海外での事業展開も進めている。欧州でも頼めば日本から何でも配達してくれそうな勢いで、郵便事業とほぼ互角のサーヴィスをしつつあるようだ。
スイスの実質郵政民営化は既に1997年から始まっている。かつての国営企業PTT（郵便電報電話局）は、通信事業分野が特別措置法で新しい株式会社に分割された。新会社スイスコム株式会社が設立され、自由化された通信市場で競争を強いられる事になった。輸送（郵便バス）、郵便小包ならびに金融事業はスイスポストの手中に残った。このスイスポストは一般法では国有企業となっていて、国中あまねく均一のサーヴィスを提供する使命を担っている。が、それと同時に厳格な新郵便法の規制の下で顧客志向と独立採算性を求められ、市場の競争原理に晒される私企業的経営を強いられている。従って依然として、僻地や高齢者が置き去りにされる懸念は残されたままだ。
郵便貯金にしても非居住者の立場で見ると、日本国民であっても非居住者は郵便口座が作れない。更に日本の郵便局は海外の郵便口座への送金を扱っていないのだが、逆にスイスの郵便局から日本の郵便口座への送金は長年可能になっている。何故日本の郵便局は外国向送金を扱わないのか尋ねてみたことがあるが、局員は困った顔をするばかりで明快な回答は得られなかった。これが資金量200数十兆円の世界最大と言われる金融機関のサーヴィス実態だ。更に、日本から買い物をする場合、郵便口座へ振り込めるケースは体験的に例外という印象だ。長年これらのサーヴィス改善を期待してきたが、御神輿を上げる気配はさっぱりなさそうだ。ならば民営化して競争に晒した方が早く改善されるかもしれない、と思うのが人情ではないか。
日本でのTV報道でおもしろかったのは、小泉首相の後見人である森元首相が衆議院解散を思い止まるよう説得する為に首相官邸を訪れた際、出されたのがタイの缶ビール10本程と缶入りのお茶におつまみの硬くなったチーズとサーモンだけだったと、関取と見まごうばかりの巨体で記者団にそれらを見せながら憤懣を吐露した事。森氏はこういう発言を国民はどのように受け止めるか考えたのだろうか？首相は政界に大地震を起こした日の前日は広島で、翌日は長崎で行われる原爆記念日にも出席する多忙な身だ。
思えば自民党の凋落は1989年参議院選挙で退廃を喫した時から始まった。1993年には中選挙区制のもと、分裂選挙で野党に転落。翌1994年には革新政党との連立で与党に復帰という、選挙民驚きの選択をやらかした。そうした経緯の後、2001年の自民党の総裁選では、全国の自民党組織に支持された小泉氏は圧倒的な勝利を収め、3度目の立候補で目的を果たした。この時から小泉総理はまさに自民党にとって救世主の如き存在となった。郵政事業の民営化は小泉首相が政治家になって以来主張し続けてきた持論であることは周知の事実。ところが、その年の夏の衆議院選挙では、郵政事業民営化反対の自民党の立候補者もこぞって小泉改革支持を連呼して多くが当選を果たした。丁度この時期筆者は日本に滞在していたので、投票は日本でした。連日選挙のTV報道で、小泉人気の熱気を半ば呆れる思いで眺めていた。
結果、自民党は政権与党となって小泉内閣が発足した。小泉政権が発足した当時、改革に期待する気持ちはあったものの、懐疑的な思いも捨て切れずにいた。その後、これまた注目の道路公団民営化論議では混乱を来たし、妥協に妥協を重ねた結果の法案は多くの批判を浴びる事になった。挙句の果ては最近になって元道路公団幹部が逮捕され、お定まりの官財の癒着が明るみになろうとしている。ところが郵政民営化法案では「改革の本丸だ」と小泉首相は自説を曲げず、自民党の反対派に対しても言行一致を貫いたので、見直す気持ちにさせられた。法案に反対した議員は公認しないと明言した為に、スイスの新聞紙上では「小泉は党内で独裁者と言われている」という記事も見受けられた。党の公認が得られない立候補者は政見放送に出られず、選挙資金は自己負担という厳しい現実があるからとは言え、郵政民営化法案に賛成した若手自民党議員の中には「限りなく反対に近い賛成をした。」と言う者がいたり、造反議員が対立候補を立てられて「（古代）ローマの将軍が囚人を猛獣と戦わせるようなもの」と憤懣を述べたり、選挙民から見れば甘えの心理が伺えて見苦しい限り。
巨額の郵貯と簡保の資金が、夥しい数に上る非効率な特殊法人の運営費となり、不急の大型公共事業に使われ、政官財癒着の構造を支えてきた。考えるだけでも恐ろしくなるような巨額の国債（借金）を政府は毎年発行し続けている。日本の内なる核爆弾だ。借金の無い健全な国庫にするためには、行財政改革をして小さな政府を目指し、地方分権を実現してゆくべきだと、どの政治家も言って来た。お題目はもう充分聞いた。後は誰が実行するか見守るだけだ。9月11日に投票が行われる選挙の結果、小泉氏の自民党が勝利するのか？民主党が政権政党になれるのか？そして造反議員達はどれ程選挙民の支持を得られるのか？今回の選挙では郵政事業民営化法案に反対した野党第一党の民主党に票を入れるか、支持者も悩む事になろう。何故なら世論調査による民意はやや郵政民営化に向かっているようだから。ともかくも郵政事業民営化の行方が定まり、日本の政治も大きく方向転換を果たすのかが示される筈。選挙民には情緒的な視点からではなく、政界のパワーバランスを考慮した冷静な視点での投票が求められていると思う。（了）
□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【 English 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□
Lower House election 2005,
a
call for the postal privatization?
Akiko Hürlimann
The bill of the postal privatization
lost the vote on the 9th of August; Swiss media reported about it with big
interest. Especially, the leading newspaper in German "Tages-Anzeiger" reported details with the title of
"against the Lion" together with a big photo of the Premier
Minister in the lower section of the front page on the 9th. On the 10th.,
again with the title, "Japanese lion Junichiro
Koizumi has roared once more", therefore, Japanese lion premier seems
to be established in Switzerland.
One of the most controversial parts of this bill is to maintain nationwide
a uniform system of postal services. But I heard, that's no problem because
postal services for small islands or isolated areas are undertaken by subcontractors.
It's the same at JR where at small local stations the service is managed in
consignment by privates. Actually, the bill consists of an article to make
trillions yen of fund, and there are critics that this is an over
protection. As a matter of fact, Yamato Transport that is known by the logo
of Kuroneko (=black cat) delivers parcels to any
islands and isolated areas, and they proceed overseas business activities
as well. If we ask them, they would accept to deliver almost anything from Japan
to Europe. They provide almost an even level of services compared to the
Post.
In real term of Swiss postal privatization has started already in the year 1997.
The former public enterprise PTT (Post Telephone Telegraph) was split into
a new company limited under a special legal framework regarding to telecommunication
services. The new company Swisscom Ltd. was
established and had to compete in the liberalization of the
telecommunication market. The service for transport (postal bus), the mail
and parcel services as well as financial services remained in the hand of
the Swiss Post. The Swiss post is a company according to public law owned by
the Swiss Federation. It has the mission to provide a service public based
on a nationwide basic service supply. But at the same time, the company is
under the strict guidelines of a new postal law based on the principles to
be customer-oriented and selfprofitable; it has
to face the competition of the market just like a private company. Then
particular concern has still remained that postal services to isolated
areas and to elderly people could be left behind in the future.
In case of postal savings, from a non-resident point of view, even a Japanese
national cannot open a postal account when living abroad. Japanese post
offices accept money transfers from abroad, but do not offer money transfer
service to abroad. Swiss post offices transfer money to Japan
already for years. I asked post offices in Japan
why they don't make money transfer service to abroad. But post office
clerks looked troubled and could not give me a clear answer. This is the
reality of the biggest financial organization in the world with total funds
of more than two hundreds trillion yen. Furthermore, when we buy something
from Japan, according to my experience, it's rare that the beneficiary has
a postal account. We've been longing for an improvement of these services,
but there seems to be no intention to do so. If it so, it's natural to
think that to privatize the post and to open it to competition, would
improve services quicker.
It was fun to watch a Japanese TV report about one-time Premier Minister Mori,
presently Premier Minister Koizumi's guardian. He expressed his frustration
after coming back form a visit at Premier Minister Koizumi official
residence. He had visited him in order to convince him not to dissolve the
House of Representatives. Premier Koizumi offered him just ten cans of Thai
beer and tea in cans as well as a snack consisting of stale cheese and
salmon. Mr. Mori showed some of the items to the surrounded press. Mr. Mori
has put on weight and his body looked like that of a Sekitori
(=sumo wrestler). I wonder, what he thought might be people's reaction to
hear such kind of comments. A day before that political earthquake
occurred, Premier Koizumi was busy to attend ceremonies in Hiroshima, and
the next day in Nagasaki where he participated in atomic
bombing memorial days.
If we look back, LDP started losing traction in 1989 by losing the Upper House
election. In 1993, under the medium-sized constituency system, the party
lost power due to a dissociated election campaign. The next year in 1994,
LDP came back as governing party in coalition with the reformist party.
That's was an astonishing phenomena for the constituency. Through such a
history, at the election of the party president in 2001, Mr. Koizumi won an
absolute victory supported nationwide by the LDP organization, and finally
he became premier minister at the third attempt. Since that moment, premier
Koizumi became the messiah for LDP. It's well known that postal privatization
is Premier Koizumi's concrete idea since he entered the political scene.
However, in the summer of the year of Lower House election, even LDP
candidates who were against postal privatization shouted repeatedly support
for Koizumi reform, and many of them were elected. At that time, I was in Japan,
so I voted in Japan. I was rather disagreeably surprised to watch the phenomenal
popularity of Koizumi among the public.
In consequence, LDP became the governing majority and they started the Koizumi
Cabinet. When Koizumi administration started, I had hope about his reforms,
but at the same time I could not stop to be skeptical. After that, there
was tangling debate about the privatization of Japan
public highway corporation. The bill accepted one compromise to another
receiving an avalanche of criticism. To complete that misery, former
executives of the highway corporation were arrested recently and the
notorious collusion of bureaucrats and businesses has come to light.
Whereas, this time, Premier Koizumi said "postal privatization is the
castle keep of my reform", and he did not compromise with LDP
opposition. I must acknowledge, this time, his behavior was of consonant to
his words. An article in a Swiss newspaper reported that "Koizumi is
called a dictator in his party" when he pronounced that he will not
give official approval to candidates who were against the bill. A candidate
who cannot get official approval from a party confronts a severe situation,
for instance, he is not allowed to present himself to election broadcast,
and all election cost he has to bear by his own. Not only that, a young LDP
parliament member who voted the bill said "I voted yes that means next
to no", or a rebel parliament member to whom an opposing candidate was
put into his constituency said "He is just like an ancient Roman
general let prisoners fight with beasts", but such a presumptuous
attitude looks only ungraceful to a constituency.
Huge capital of postal savings and postal life insurance support the
running cost of inefficient slew government-affiliated firms, spending
money for big nonessential public works, and maintaining collusions of
politicians, bureaucrats and businesses. The Government has issued huge
amounts of government bonds (debts) every year that makes us frightening to
think about the debt burden. This is an inner nuclear bomb of Japan.
Every politician has said that we have to build up a small government by
administrative and financial reforms, and we have to precede
decentralization in order to make healthy state finances. We have heard
enough subject to act. Now, it is time to see who will realize them. With
the results of the election on September 11, we will see whether the LDP of
Mr. Koizumi will win? Whether the Democratic Party will be able to form
their regime? How much support from constituencies will get rebel
candidates within the ruling party? The Democratic Party, the biggest opposition party, was against
the postal privatization bill. At this election, the supporters of the
Democratic Party might be in trouble whether they should vote for them or
not. The majority of the constituencies rather tend to approve postal
privatization. In any case, the fate of postal privatization will be
decided, and it will be shown whether Japan
can change in politics or not. Whatsoever, the constituency is requested to
vote with sober reflection considering the power balance of political arena
instead of making an emotional decision. (End)
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[Editor's comment / 編集後記]
冷涼な盛夏を迎えているスイスです。日本の読者の皆様には、残暑のお見舞いを申し上げます。在スイスの読者の皆様は夏期休暇も終えて、通常の生活に戻られる方が多い事でしょう。日頃気儘な発行にもかかわらずお付き合い頂き、読者の皆様には感謝致しております。私事で恐縮ですが、夏期休暇の前後に体調が思わしくなくなり、慌てて針治療に通い始めました。劇的な効果あって、ようやくいつもの調子に戻り、今号をまとめる事が出来ました。改めて中国医療の威力に感嘆させられているところです。近年スイスでも中国医療に関心が集まり、健康保険で支払われるようになっています。中国から優秀な漢方医がスイス各地に派遣され治療に携わっています。こうした診療所でも日中間のしこりを感じるどころか、異文化の中で出会ったアジア人同士の格別な親近感が生まれます。日瑞友好のみならず、日中友好も願って止みません。（A.H.）
We spend a cool summer here in Switzerland. I'd like to send summer greetings
to Japanese readers in the summer heat. Many readers in Switzerland must have finished their summer holidays and returned back to everyday
life. Despite the indulgent release of this magazine, I am very glad for
your sustainable patronage. I'm afraid to mention my private matter, but I
didn't feel well for some weeks before my summer holiday, so I had to rush
to acupuncture treatment. Thanks to a dramatic positive effect, I could
recover and prepare this edition. Once again, I admire the power of Chinese
Traditional Medicine. Recently, the interest about Chinese traditional
medical treatment has increased here in Switzerland. Health insurance pays for the Chinese acupuncture treatment. Highly
capable Chinese doctors were sent to Swiss regions. At such clinics, we are
not aware of any feelings against Japanese. In fact, it used to arise on us
a profound affinity as inter Asian encounter in a distinct cultural
environment. I sincerely hope for not only a Japanese-Swiss friendship, but
also a Japanese-Chinese friendship. (A.H.)
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/japinch/jp-swiss-journal/ah.htm
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