Second Japanese transport company opts out of mail service
A second transportation company made it known Wednesday that onerous conditions attached to a postal deregulation bill will keep it from entering the mail delivery business.
An official from Seino Transportation Co. made the announcement during a meeting of the public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications division of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.
Toshiaki Hashimoto, a senior Seino Transportation official, was quoted as telling the meeting that it would be difficult for the firm to offer nationwide mail delivery services at the uniform rate used by the government-run postal service.
“The postal service has infrastructure and systems that were developed over a long period of time,” he said, “and it is difficult for a private firm to make investments to that extent.”
A set of four postal services deregulation bills are now being debated in the Diet.
One would put strict conditions on private firms that start offering mail services, while another would see the creation of a new public corporation in 2003 to take over the three postal services of mail, postal savings and “kampo” life insurance.
In April, Yamato Transport Co. said it had abandoned plans to enter the mail delivery business as the government’s moves to liberalize the sector would burden new entrants with too many requirements.
