Ex-official eyed in Japan Post deals / Former bureaucrat heads firm operating 70 postal cafes, shops
A private company, whose president was a career official at the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, won contracts granted at the discretion of Japan Post to operate 70 of the 122 cafeterias and shops at 61 of the Kanpo no Yado lodging facilities run by Japan Post for policy holders of postal insurance, it was learned Monday.
The company took over most of the 70 cafeterias and shops from a foundation that was found to have offered cushy jobs to retired bureaucrats via a practice called amakudari after that operator was disbanded as part of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s reform of public-service corporations.
The private company, Yume Kanpo Service, is located in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
The foundation, Kanpo Kanyusha Service Kyokai, which was disbanded in April, was established in 1965 to promote lodging services for policyholders of postal insurance.
Annual sales of the 70 businesses are estimated at 8 billion yen.
With the privatization of the postal service scheduled for Oct. 1, the public-service corporation apparently wanted to give themselves the appearance of being privately run as it would serve the interests of the organization’s bureaucrats.
According to Japan Post spokespersons and employees of Yume Kanpo Service, in April, at the discretion of Japan Post, Yume Kanpo won contracts to operate cafeterias and shops in 13 Kanpo no Yado facilities, including those in Shiobara, Tochigi Prefecture; Shuzenji in Shizuoka Prefecture; Tokachigawa in Hokkaido; and Mimasaka Yunogo in Okayama Prefecture, that had been entrusted to Service Kyokai.
It also won contracts to run shops at 35 facilities, including those in Hokane, Kanagawa Prefecture; Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture; and Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, as well as a cafeteria at one of the facilities.
In December, it absorbed two companies employing retired bureaucrats that were commissioned to run seven cafeterias in seven facilities, which included two other facilities and one store.
Yume Kanpo Service operates businesses at 51 of the facilities, with annual sales at 21 cafeterias amounting to 5.1 billion yen and 2.9 billion yen at 49 shops.
Japan Post takes between 10 and 20 percent of the profits, and the rest goes to Yume Kanpo Service. Each Kanpo no Yado has a cafeteria and a store. Japan Post directly operates five of the other 52 shops and another 35 companies won contracts in a similar manner to run 47 shops. Under the accountancy law, Japan Post is required to put the contracts out to public tender.
Regarding awarding all of Service Kyokai’s businesses to companies employing retired bureaucrats, the official said that companies had been selected to take over businesses from Service Kyokai to ensure their continued smooth operation.
The reform of public services saw Service Kyokai disbanded because it was no longer needed. As such, profitable businesses, such as cafeterias and stores, were transferred to Yume Kanpo Service.
Three of the four Yume Kanpo Service executives were former officials of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, now part of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
