Japanese Postal Service urged to cut jobs & consolidate post offices
The posts ministry’s administrative evaluation bureau has drafted a report urging the ministry to streamline state-run postal services through measures such as large job cuts and consolidation of neighboring post offices, bureau officials said.
The bureau is expected to hand in the report to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications on Friday and ask it to respond within six months, the officials said.
The report specifically calls on the ministry to cut postal service jobs drastically by merging neighboring post offices and to eliminate any loss-making services.
Taking as an example three neighboring post offices in the Kinki region, the report says it is possible for them to reduce the number of delivery and collection service staff to nine from the currently combined 18.
The report also noted that express courier services launched by the postal services a few years ago suffered losses totaling more than 400 million yen in fiscal 2000.
The ministry has planned to slash some 15,000 postal service jobs by fiscal 2005. It also plans to create a public corporation in 2003 to take over the state-run postal services.
Kyodo News International
