Japan Post automatic transfers fail on system glitch

Japan Post said Friday some 10,000 automatic withdrawals from postal savings accounts failed over four business days from Jan. 4 due to a computer system glitch.

The trouble emerged as Japan Post made some modifications to its computer system to prevent erroneous money transfers on Jan. 4, it said.

Japan Post reverted to the previous configuration on Thursday and the system has worked properly since, it said.

Japan Post has apologized to users of the automatic money withdrawal service for the inconvenience and been in contact with them over how to implement the transfers.

The failed transactions were among a total of about 34 million money transfer orders issued over the four business days. The amount of money involved is not yet known.

As a result of the system malfunction, 1,243 users were unable to receive payments such as utility and credit card charges.

Japan Post said it is investigating the specific cause of the system failure.