The cabinet has approved a plan to dismantle or privatise seven major public corporations and agreed to cut government spending on loss-making state-run firms by 1 trln yen.
"We will compile a detailed plan to streamline public corporations toward the end of this year and we will thoroughly review the status of remaining public corporations," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said of the 156 other state-backed firms.
"In the fiscal 2002 budget, we will reduce our spending by 1 trln yen on public corporations as planned," finance minister Masajuro