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Article: Japan's dangerous post office. (postal savings bank) (Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- October 29, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN 1873, when Japan built its first railway, it turned to London's capital market to raise the necessary cash. Two years later Japan's nationalist rulers hit upon a scheme to rid themselves of this dependency: they founded the postal-savings system, which has financed the country's infrastructure projects ever since. Today Japan's post office is the world's biggest repository of private savings and a model for capital-hungry industrialisers throughout the developing world. So far this year nine admiring countries--from Kenya to India to China--have sent delegations to Japan's postal ministry. But, beguiling though Japan's example seems, it is a trap.
Faced ...