Press Conference by Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, December 25, 2015, 10:55 am to 11:17 am)

[Questions and answers:]

Q.

Today a proposal was issued to increase the maximum deposit amount at Japan Post Bank to 13 million yen and to increase the maximum insurance coverage at Japan Post Insurance to 20 million yen. As the Minister of State for Financial Services, what are your views on this proposal?

A.

I believe that the panel on postal privatization has made this decision following careful consideration. A big reason was talk that money would move from credit unions and secondary regional banks to Japan Post Bank. I think people were grumbling, but the view was that we shouldn’t let that happen, that we could leave the issue till later. They were thinking about various things flexibly, and I think that Japan Post Bank, regional banks, secondary regional banks, and credit unions have become much better able to communicate with each other, and they have come up with various ways of using funds. I hope these schemes go well, so I don’t really have any opinion in particular.