Postal deregulation moves returned to sender
Delivery firms say the failure to define mail hinders liberalization.
Ambiguity surrounding the definition of postal mail has long confounded potential newcomers to the mail delivery sector and is now threatening to derail postal deregulation, one of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's pet reform projects.
The crux of the problem lies with the government's failure to specify exactly what constitutes postal mail, which may only be delivered by the government-operated postal system. The lack of a precise definition is causing headaches for parcel couriers that want to begin delivering certain kinds of mail once the market is opened to the private sector.
Couriers argue that the blurring of lines gives the government too much control over postal services, while some have even suggested the Anti-Monopoly Law has been violated.
A Lower House committee is currently deliberating bills on postal deregulation, but has made little headway.
“The right to send and receive mail is a basic one. Mail is essential for a democratic nation, as it is a vital means for exchanging information and opinion,'' said Liberal Democratic Party member Hiroyuki Arai, a key opponent of the postal privatization.
During a particularly heated debate on June 11, Arai argued that advances in electronic mail would not make postal mail obsolete. He insisted that many elderly people in rural areas are not able to use computers.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed Toranosuke Katayama, the posts minister, to have the set of four postal deregulation bills pass the Diet within the current parliamentary session without making any amendments, a move that further inflamed passions.
The Mail Law stipulates that only the public postal body can deliver postal mail. Violators face prison terms or fines.
Four years ago, the postal inspection bureau cited the law when it threatened to arrest the president of a travel goods company in Niigata after he was found to have used a parcel delivery firm to mail travel coupons to the winners of a promotional campaign.
Incidents like that worry leading door-to-door delivery firm Yamato Transport Co. and its peers, which-in the absence of a more precise definition-consider postal mail to be limited to 50-yen postcards and 80-yen personal letters. Yamato has been delivering many other kinds of mail for the last 15 years.
The former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, concerned about its eroding monopoly, publicly stated for the first time in 1999 that mail was a document “in which the sender notifies the specific recipient of his or her intentions addressed to the recipient.''
The loosely worded definition means that most deliveries can be classified as postal mail, from shipping statements and meeting announcements to corporate advertising fliers and unsolicited direct mail.
Fearing the ministry might be trying to severely restrict parcel couriers' activities, Yamato complained to the Fair Trade Commission of a possible violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law in 1999.
The FTC acknowledged there were problems, but said the issue was not one that could be dealt with under existing antitrust legislation.
Problems with the vague definition of postal mail surfaced again with the distribution of World Cup tickets.
Although initial plans called for purchasers to pick up their tickets in person at post offices, poor preparations forced organizers to begin using parcel couriers to deliver tickets directly to the homes of some buyers at the end of May.
An official at one courier said the tickets could fall into the category of postal mail, because each bears the name and address of its purchaser.
But that was not the view of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, which said World Cup tickets could be delivered by parcel couriers, just like concert tickets.
The postal privatization bills submitted to the Diet in April contain a definition of mail, but the wording is vague, being virtually identical to that in the former posts ministry's 1999 statement. The drafters of the bills said specific guidelines would be devised later.
Yamato responded by abruptly announcing it would not enter the market, saying it expected the ministry would again define a wide range of items as mail in an attempt to cut it out of the soon-to-be-liberalized market.
A key issue is how to deal with the lucrative market for direct mail. While the volume of regular mail is stagnant, direct mail has grown by 1 billion pieces over the last five years.
Many observers believe the ministry is intent on making sure direct mail, including unsolicited “junk'' mail, continues to be classified as postal mail. Parcel carriers, however, argue that direct mail is no different from the fliers they are permitted to deliver because it contains no private information.(IHT/Asahi: June 26,2002)
(06/26)
