Japan's IPO of the Century

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe likes to say Japan is back in business. His case got a big boost Thursday with news that the country's biggest initial public offering this century -- the $11.6 billion listing of behemoth Japan Post -- will go ahead this November. The share sale isn't just a sign that change is afoot in the Japanese economy: It should help propel that process.

Japan Post's long journey to the private sector began in 2001 when Junichiro Koizumi, Abe's mentor, was prime minister. In his drive to end the cronyism and complacency that plagued the Japanese economy, Koizumi went right to the source: the savings institution within a postal system that then employed over 400,000 people. Japan Post was the piggy bank wayward politicians used to fund pet projects, many of them white elephants, which helped feed an explosion in public debt.