71% of Japanese post offices lose money in FY '05
More than 70 pct of post offices across Japan, mainly those in sparsely populated regions, were unprofitable in fiscal 2005, Japan Post reported Friday.
At total of 14,404 post offices, or 71.2 pct of 20,223 offices nationwide, incurred losses in the fiscal year that ended last March, down by 3,750 from the previous year. The drop is the first since the disclosure of the office-by-office breakdown of business performance started in fiscal 2003.
The number of profitable post offices increased to 5,819.
The total excludes post offices whose operations are consigned to nonprofit organizations.
The latest data provide a fresh indication that Japan’s postal services are maintaining loss-making operations in less populated regions with the help of profits earned in urban areas.
Turning around the unprofitable offices will be a major challenge for the company that will inherit the management of the post office network from Japan Post in a 10-year breakup and privatization process of the government-owned corporation that begins in October 2007.
By prefecture, post offices in 12 prefectures registered profits in fiscal 2005, including Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka. The remaining 35 prefectures were in the red, with the cost-to-revenue ratio exceeding 140 pct in six prefectures–Hokkaido, Iwate, Akita, Shimane, Kochi and Kagoshima.
