Japan Post on Thursday announced that it has reached an agreement to buy ASOCIA CORP., a DAIMARU INC. distribution and logistics subsidiary. Pending approval by the Ministry of Communications, the public postal corporation on Oct. 3 will purchase 67.6 per cent of Asocia’s outstanding stock from Daimaru for 649.98 million yen (USD5.9 million).
Read MoreTHE TUSSLE between Japan Post and Mr Junichiro Koizumi commenced in 1992. In the very first press conference he held as the Minister in-charge, he vowed to cut the Postal Services System (PSS) to size (it was renamed Japan Post in 1992). He stepped up efforts after he took over as Prime Minister in 2001
Having failed to get full parliamentary support for his Bill, he has dissolved Parliament and is seeking public support in an election scheduled on September 11. Why should the reform of postal service raise such political hackles? Japan Post is not an ordinary postal agency. It operates 25,000 post offices nationwide and covers remote, mountainous and thinly populated areas. It has 400,000 employees. In the past, post-masters were leaders of standing in the rural areas and guided public opinion. Many owed their jobs to political bosses and were the bulwarks of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). More than delivery of mail, its role in raising savings and insurance funds has been phenomenal. Aggregate savings deposits with Japan Post amounted to 214 trillion yen ($1.98 trillion) last year. It is the largest financial institution in the world. Its deposits are equal to the combined deposits of four of Japan’s largest banks. It holds 33 per cent of the country’s time deposits and has contributed substantially to Japan Government Bonds (JGB)
Read MoreJapan Post said Friday it will improve its package delivery service by allowing people to use cellphone-operated lockers at railway stations to receive parcels, beginning in September. The new service for Yu-Pack parcel delivery costs no additional money and will initially be available at lockers in 55 locations, mainly railway stations and shopping centers in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. The service will be offered in collaboration with X-Cube Corp., an operator of coin-operated lockers that use cellphones as keys. Japan Post said it will initially target users of mail-order services and young people who tend to be away from home so that they can easily pick up packages while commuting.
Read MoreDHL said Wednesday that it has upgraded its uplift capacity on the Hong Kong-Shanghai sector by 35 percent in response to the tremendous growth in demand express services in Asia. According to Jerry Hsu, president for Greater China and Korea at DHL Express, the five times weekly Hong Kong-Shanghai service, previously operated by a Dragonair A300B4, has been replaced by a Cathay Pacific-operated service with an Air Hong Kong Airbus A300-600GF. The Freighter, with a capacity of 47 tonnes, represents an increase in payload capacity of almost 35 percent, from 35 tonnes previously, he said. He added that DHL last upgraded the payload capacity on this route in June 2004, 12 months after the service was first launched, in response to increasing demand and surging intra-Asia shipment volumes.
Read MoreThe upcoming split of post and telecommunications services could put some 45,000 postal workers in a state of financial crisis. The split, originally scheduled to take place in 2002, was postponed, and postal services have been subsidised by the telecom sector. Policy makers said the move should create specialised corporations for post and telecom services, but insiders, including the postal staff, said they would face an uncertain future once the subsidies were cut. Postal workers account for 49 per cent of the 90,000 employees at Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT), but the service brings in only 5-10 per cent of the total revenue, which is currently VND30 trillion (USD 1.9 billion) a year. VNPT is losing money compensating for the imbalance, which is affecting the growth of both services. Since October 2001, VNPT – then known as the Department General of Post and Telecommunications – has been testing the split in 10 provinces.
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