Japan Post Reports 442 B. Yen in Net Loss in April-September

Japan Post Holdings Co. said Wednesday its predecessor Japan Post incurred a net loss of 442 billion yen in April-September, compared with a net profit of 237.7 billion yen a year before.

A special loss of 1,419.5 billion yen, stemming from a change in accounting methods to report pension costs, weighed down on the bottom line.

But the net loss was far smaller than the company’s estimate of 852.7 billion yen thanks to robust earnings at “Yucho” postal savings and “Kampo” postal insurance operations.

Thanks to increases in investment returns, net profit at the Yucho division grew 20.5 pct to 372.6 billion yen, and that at the Kampo division increased 35.6 pct to 661.8 billion yen.

The mail service division suffered a net loss of 814.6 billion yen, against a year-before loss of 71.4 billion yen.

Recurring profit tripled to 1,207.8 billion yen.

Japan Post Holdings, which is wholly owned by the government, started operating on Oct. 1, the launch of the 10-year privatization process of Japan’s 136-year-old state-controlled postal service system.

The holding company controls four units–Japan Post Bank, Japan Post Insurance Co., Japan Post Service Co., which took over postal services, and Japan Post Network Co., which is in charge of operating Japan Post’s office network

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