Tag: Japan

Moving closer to head-on competition with Japan Post, Yamato Transport Co. has started collecting printed matter at convenience stores for its “mail” service, hoping to make inroads in the consumer market.

This may result in the leading door-to-door parcel-delivery service firm handling first-class mail “inadvertently” in violation of the mail law, which limits such handling to Japan Post. Yamato could wage a guerrilla war through legal loopholes as its frustration with the post office grows.

Japan Post plans to set up a mail transport subsidiary and will decide when to do so a year from now, President Masaharu Ikuta said Thursday.

The comment by the chief of the postal public corporation is interpreted as a hint that the subsidiary will likely be set up as early as fiscal 2005.Japan Post now outsources long-distance transport of postal matter. It introduced bidding for some routes last fiscal year, but contracts on other routes have been handed out without bidding to affiliates and subsidiaries that hire former Posts Ministry officials.

Japan Post is expanding its mail operations for China, particularly Express Mail Service (EMS), in light of the increasing presence of U.S. and European rivals.

EMS handles 9.45 million units per year, and delivers documents and packages faster than standard mail service. About 20 per cent of EMS volume goes to China, and traffic to that country is increasing about 10 per cent annually.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is planning to create a new ministry to direct postal privatisation, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Monday.

“To ensure the privaization of Japan Post, scheduled for 2007, the prime minister will create a new portfolio for a minister in charge of postal service reforms,” the paper said. It cited sources in Koizumi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.