Japan Post eager to enter other Asian markets

Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said Wednesday he plans to strengthen international competitiveness of the public corporation’s postal service so that it can expand its mail delivery service to other Asian countries.

Speaking at a lecture for Kyodo News subscribers in Tokyo, Ikuta said, “We are making a belated attempt to boost our international competitiveness in order to advance into other Asian markets.”

He pointed out the international mail and parcel delivery market is dominated by major players such as Deutsche Post of Germany, and U.S. carriers FedEx and United Parcel Service.

Japan Post, which lags far behind those major players, needs to protect its domestic market from their advances first and then seek opportunities in the rest of Asia, Ikuta said.

“I suppose you often see yellow cars of Deutsche Post’s DHL running on the streets of Tokyo. We have to fight against foreign companies’ invasion of the Japanese mail delivery market,” he said.

Japan Post said in June it has reached a basic accord with Chinese postal authorities on a business tie-up, setting the goal of doubling mail and parcel deliveries between the two countries in three years.

The company eventually plans to open liaison offices in Beijing and Shanghai in line with a strategy to promote overseas services, according to Japan Post officials.

Japan Post was created in April 2003 as a public corporation, taking over the government-run Postal Services Agency’s mail delivery, postal savings and “kampo” life insurance services.

The government plans to privatise the entity in 2007. It is expected to draw up a final report on postal privatisation in September.