Japan Post spinoff to take over mail-order sales business
The new firm that will manage the post office network of privatized Japan Post will take over mail-order sales operations handling local specialties, informed sources said Monday.
The new company, which will control some 24,000 post offices nationwide, will take over mail-order sales operations from Postal Service Center, an affiliate of Japan Post, the sources told Jiji Press.
Postal Service Center currently sells local specialties by mail order across Japan, a service known as “furusato kozutsumi,” with deliveries to customers made via Japan Post’s “Yu-Pack” parcel service.
The center receives some 7 pct of the prices of local specialty goods handled as fees under the service, launched in 1983.
In fiscal 2005 ended in March last year, the number of parcels handled under the service totaled 12.45 million, accounting for some 5 pct of overall Yu-Pack parcels. The service has 610,000 members.
The takeover is designed to smooth the way for the post office managing company to start broader catalog-based sales operations handling local specialty goods.
The post office company is one of the four firms which will be created when Japan Post is split up in October under its 10-year privatization process. The three other spinoffs are a savings bank, an insurance firm and a mail delivery service firm.
