Japan Post drafts business plans after privatisation
A firm that is preparing for Japan Post’s privatization on Friday outlined the privatized corporation’s organizational structure and business plans.
According to the blueprint drafted by the preparatory company called Japan Post Corp., postal savings and insurance business companies that will be established at the start of the 10-year privatization process in October 2007 would not launch new lines of businesses initially.
Japan Post Corp. is set to work out a final version of the organizational structure and business plans based on the draft and submit it to the government by the end of July.
The privatization scheme calls for splitting Japan Post into four companies respectively in charge of mail, savings, insurance and post office management at the beginning of the 10-year process. Japan Post Corp. will be transformed into a holding company that controls the four companies.
According to the blueprint, the envisaged holding company will have 4,000 staff employees at the start of the privatization process. The initial workforce will stand at 109,000 at the mail service firm, 133,000 at the post office company, 12,000 at the savings firm and 5,500 at the insurance company.
The business blueprint stresses the importance of the mail service firm becoming a comprehensive distribution company by offering freight services at home and abroad.
The post office management company should aim to join hands with firms outside the Japan Post group to launch goods sales and other services, according to the blueprint.
Meanwhile, the blueprint failed to show no new lines of businesses for the postal savings and insurance companies, only saying that they will need to introduce services that meet customer needs.
Japan Post Corp. President Yoshifumi Nishikawa has been strongly calling for scrapping the current rule limiting per-customer postal savings at 10 million yen. He has also been seeking deregulation so that the Japan Post group can start loan and credit card services.
But private-sector financial institutions are opposed to such ideas.
