14percent of Japan’s Post Offices in the red in fy03

Japan Post announced on Friday that of post offices nationwide, 14 per cent were in the red in fiscal 2003.

Shimane Prefecture had the highest share of post offices with losses, with 54.1 per cent in the red. Kochi and Hokkaido prefectures also had high shares of poorly performing post offices.

Areas with the smallest shares of post offices in the red were in prefectures surrounding Tokyo, including Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa. Only 0.3 per cent in Saitama and 1.3 per cent in Chiba were in the red.

The results show that post offices tend to perform better in areas of high population density.

This is the first time that Japan Post has announced results for individual offices.

Japan Post only included offices that provide all three Japan Post services in mail, savings and life insurance.

According to the calculations, 2,870 post offices out of a total of 20, 247 post offices were in the red.

If only operations in mail are considered, close to 19,000 were in the red, suggesting the extent to which e-mail had weighed on postal activity.