Japanese universal postal service to exclude parcels
The government has entered the final stage of negotiations on working out a system that will in principle not require universal service for parcel delivery after the privatization of the postal services in fiscal 2007, government officials said Saturday.
The universal service will cover only ordinary mail items, including postcards, the officials said.
In other countries, universal service is usually required for parcel delivery, but the government decided against this because the door-to-door parcel service in the private sector is highly developed.
The current system requires Japan Post to submit to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry a report on its parcel delivery fees before it raises them.
To increase the privatized postal firm’s degree of freedom in running its operations, the government plans to change the system to one requiring it to submit to the Construction and Transport Ministry a similar report on fees retroactively, as private delivery firms do, the officials said.
The government plans to spell out the policy in bills related to the privatization of the postal services that will be submitted to the current Diet session. But the ruling coalition parties are likely to oppose such a policy out of concern that parcel delivery services in depopulated areas will end.
With the Liberal Democratic Party considering such a policy may have an adverse impact on maintaining the nationwide network of post offices, the policy will be a focal point of negotiations on postal privatization between the government and ruling coalition parties.
The LDP is supported by government-commissioned postmasters across the country.
The basic policy to privatize the postal services approved by the Cabinet requires nationwide universal service for the postal business, but it has yet to decide whether that includes parcel delivery.
Under the government plan, universal service is not required for parcels collected and delivered in the country, as well as parcels from overseas.
Copyright (c) 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun. All rights reserved.
