Japan Postal Services set to realise first profit in five years

Job cuts and other cost-trimming measures mean Japan’s troubled postal services should return to profit in 2002 for the first time in five years. Despite a reduction in budgetary funds, advocated by the government as part of a drastic reform programme aimed at resuscitating Japan’s economy, the postal services will see 1 bln yen in profit, an official from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying. “In the next fiscal year, revenue from postal service operations are expected to be cut 0.6 pct from the current fiscal year to 2,259.7 bln yen,” he said. “But job cuts and other measures have resulted in a 2 pct reduction in spending to 2,258.7 bln yen. Thus profit of 1 bln yen is expected,” he said. It would be the first time since March 1998 that Japan’s postal operations return to black ink, he said. jn