the [Japanese] Postal Services Agency, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, plans to begin opening up postal mail transport in April

March 30, 2001 — Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that “the [Japanese] Postal Services Agency, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, plans to begin opening up postal mail transport in April to major shipping and transport companies, including door-to-door parcel delivery firms. From early April, the agency will introduce a bidding system for the transport of mail by air from Tokyo to remote places such as Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa. Currently, only three airlines, including Japan Airlines Co. (9201), are permitted to transport mail by air. Trucks and airplanes transporting mail travel 1.5 million kilometers a day, with airplanes accounting for 54% of the travel. The agency pays over 20 billion yen a year to the three airlines for mail transport. The agency also plans to hold a tender for mail transport by ship in April. A date has still to be determined for mail transport by trucks, but will likely come after the agency becomes a public corporation in 2003. The postal mail business is expected to see a loss of more than 30 billion yen in fiscal 2001, bleeding red ink for the second year in a row. The earnings environment is becoming tougher ahead of turning the agency into a public corporation.