In 1982, Japan’s Administrative Reform Council recommended privatization and divestiture of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, starting the process of restructuring Japan’s one hundred-year public monopoly of telephony. After two years of deliberation, the government decided to privatize NTT but postpone divestiture. It took another three attempts and fifteen years before Japan finally settle the divestiture issue, adopting a holding company formula. How was NTT selected as a reform agenda despite oppositions from major actors including NTT and MPT? Why was privatization possible, while it took so long to settle the divestiture issue in such a vague fashion? Why was the holding company formula adopted, which was never considered as an option for NTT? This paper demonstrates that the Garbage Can Model can provide some consistent interpretation of the NTT reform process.