Japan is well behind other countries in addressing this need for change. The United States and Canada abolished their postal savings systems over thirty years ago, New Zealand and a number of European countries have privatized theirs starting in the 1980s and most other European countries have taken at least some steps to privatize or streamline their postal banks in recent years. Being a laggard gives Japan the advantage of relevant experience that it can use to inform its own future choices, but so far the discussion of Japanese postal savings reform has made little reference to foreign examples
