Japan Post to Expand Tie-Ups with Convenience Stores
Convenience store chains Daily Yamazaki Co. and am/pm Japan Co. will start accepting parcels for delivery by Japan Post at all their outlets in Tokyo on June 1, Japan Post said Monday.
With the two convenience store operators due to expand their partnerships to cover stores across Japan possibly from September, the public enterprise will be able to build a network of 13,000 always-open convenience stores in Japan for its “Yu-Pack” service.
The total breaks down to 8,100 outlets of Lawson Inc. , which launched the agent service in November last year, 1,700 stores of Ministop Co. , which will begin handling Yu-Pack parcels from June this year, 1,900 outlets of Daily Yamazaki and 1,300 of am/pm Japan.
Daily Yamazaki and am/pm Japan have been providing agent services for Japan Post on an experimental basis at some of their stores in Tokyo since last June. They decided to broaden the services nationwide because of the favorable customer response, the companies said.
On the issue of the Yu-Pack service, Yamato Transport Co. , a major private parcel delivery service company, last year canceled its agent deal with Lawson due to the convenience store’s decision to do business with Japan Post. Yamato then filed an antitrust suit against the public corporation, which the government plans to break up and privatize in stages, citing unfair business practices.
Daily Yamazaki and am/pm Japan plan to handle both Yu-Pack and the Pelican parcel delivery service of Nippon Express Co. , while Japan Post will entrust Nippon Express to collect parcels from those chains in a bid to seek ways to coexist with private-sector firms.
