Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's politically sensitive plan to privatize Japan's postal system and spin off its businesses in 2007 was adopted by the Cabinet on Friday, handing the Japanese leader a victory on a reform issue he has aggressively promoted. With some 370 trillion yen (US$3.36 billion; euro 2.8 billion) in savings deposits and insurance assets, Japan Post is the world's largest bank. The Cabinet approved the plan and will now ask a task force to flesh out how the postal system's split into four businesses will work, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. Once a business plan has been drawn up, the government will submit legislation to Parliament, Hosoda said, without elaborating.
