Reform might affect Japanese small town life

Cabinet approval Friday of part of a package of bills on postal service deregulation has heightened concerns among post offices in underpopulated areas about the possibility that they might suffer in fierce competition with the private sector.

The package of four bills is designed to allow private firms to offer mail services and establish a new public corporation to take over the existing postal services: mail, postal savings and life insurance.

Officials of such post offices have expressed worry that the management of the new postal corporation might respond to the pressures of a deregulated business environment by cutting some post offices.

Misa Takano, 71, of Ikusakamura, Nagano Prefecture, looks forward to talking to the letter carrier who visits her home once a day to deliver newspapers sent by mail. She has lived alone since the death of her husband 10 years ago.

After an exchange of pleasant greetings with the letter carrier, she asks him to send letters or parcels, and to make withdrawals from her postal savings account. Sometimes she asks him to deliver an order sheet of daily necessities to a local social welfare organization office.

Hitoshi Koshihara, 39, postmaster of the Ikusaka Post Office, said, “You wouldn’t see such personal service or friendly communication in a big city.”

The village, in which 34 percent of the 2,500 residents are 65 years or older, has three government-designated post offices entrusted with postal services. Of those, two offer services to assist those aged 70 or older who live alone. Similar services are now available in 216 municipalities, mainly in areas with low population densities.

A private delivery company that is expected to enter the postal service business once it is privatized has a counter to accept parcels in the village, but local post office workers are confident that their service is superior.

Koshihara expressed his confidence, saying, “The delivery firm’s drivers often ask us how to get to destinations that aren’t on the map.” But at the same time, he is worried that the anticipated competition between the planned postal corporation and private firms in big cities might affect post offices in the countryside.

Ikusakamura Mayor Munemasa Terajima said, “If business efficiency becomes the top priority, post offices in sparsely populated areas will be the first ones subject to downsizing or closure.”

In a streamlining effort two years ago, the number of officials at Ikusakamura Post Office was reduced from 10 to eight.

The Public Management Ministry has tried to allay concerns about possible closures.

“We’ll maintain the current system even though a tremendous effort may be required to do so,” a senior ministry official said.

However, Prof. Satoru Matsubara of Toyo University, an advocate of postal service privatization, argued that the issue should not be mixed up with the problems of depopulation.

“Local governments could entrust private corporations, such as home delivery service companies, with certain services for residents. It’s unreasonable for the ministry to attempt to sidestep the issue of postal service deregulation without making cost-cutting efforts by reducing the number of Regional Bureaus of Postal Services or Regional Bureaus of Postal Inspections.”