Japanese Postmasters

In my biased and uninformed opinion, postmasters are a spoilt and over-indulged group in Japan.

For instance, part of the political clout that postmasters possess are said to have derived from their ability to rally voters in support of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

But in an article by Patricia MacLachlan, postmasters were described as not having "any influence over the voting decisions of their employees, the vast majority of whom have gravitated toward the Socialist Party or, since the mid-1990s, the Democratic Party." (Patricia MacLachlan, "Post Office Politics in Modern Japan: The Postmasters, Iron Triangles, and the Limits of Reform, Journal of Japanese Studies 30 (2004)

So while postmasters still have some semblance of influence over the voting decisions of the locals in their communities, it seems to me that their overall power is not commensurate with the kind of attention given to them by the LDP.

MacLachlan also wrote about the 1948 enactment of a law that turned postmasters into regular civil servants. But postmasters were apparently unhappy about the law and wanted to be known as “special public servants” instead so that they could continue to participate in electoral activities.

I do not know if this is unique to Japan, but it sounds like “brattish” behavior to me, a case of wanting your cake and eating it.

For those who felt that electoral participation (and with it, their social standing in society) was more important, surely they could choose to opt out of being postmasters. After all, given the various sacrifices and inconveniences, not to mention the low pay, as outlined by MacLachlan, of being a postmaster, it does not sound like a whole lot of fun being a postmaster in those days.