Tag: Japan

Japan's 1st Post Office inside Convenience Store Opens

Posted by | Sep 3, 2007 | |

A post office started business on the premises of a southern Japan outlet of convenience store chain Lawson Inc. on Monday, becoming Japan’s first post office to operate inside a convenience store.

There are already convenience stores that offer services inside post offices, but the opposite case is the first in the country.

The Lawson store in Kitakyushu, in the southern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka, has no partition separating it from the post office, allowing customers to go back and forth between them without stepping out of the building.

Speaking at an opening ceremony, Yoshikazu Kurita, the head of Japan Post’s branch for the Kyushu southern Japan region, said Japan Post will continue to pursue similar partnerships with Lawson in order to provide more convenience to customers.

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Japan Post to shut down ATMs on Sept. 30 ahead of privatization

Posted by | Aug 24, 2007 | |

Japan Post said Friday all of some 26,000 automated teller machines for postal savings will be taken out of service on Sept. 30 to prepare for the privatization of postal services due to start the following day.

All postal ATMs installed at post offices and other locations across Japan need to be suspended so as to confirm the amount of cash Japan Post holds on the last day as a public corporation, it said.

ATMs operated by financial institutions and convenience stores tied up with Japan Post will not be affected.

In addition, electronic remittances via the Internet and the use of debit cards will be possible as usual, Japan Post said.

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ABX adds flights in Asian market

Posted by | Aug 14, 2007 | |

ABX Air Inc. and cargo delivery competitors including FedEx Corp. and DHL are hustling to expand their services in fast-growing Pacific and Asian markets.

The companies are buying aircraft, or even competitors that already operate in Asia, to serve lucrative U.S.-Asia or intra-Asian routes. The focus is on freight hauled in containers aboard cargo aircraft, either with international or intra-continent range.

Wilmington-based ABX Air has begun a two-year agreement to support Asian cargo operations of All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) of Japan. ABX has deployed two Boeing 767 freighters, and recently flew its first cargo flight for ANA from Osaka, Japan, to Dalian, China. ABX expects annual revenue of USD 22 million from its agreement to support All Nippon Airways.

ABX also said last week that it will spend USD 23 million to buy a Boeing 767-200 long-range aircraft from Air China Ltd. for international cargo service.

FedEx, the company that pioneered overnight delivery of small packages in the United States, has begun next-business-day delivery service available to customers throughout China. FedEx also spent USD 400 million to buy the DTW Group’s domestic express network in China and DTW’s 50 percent share of an express delivery joint venture with FedEx.

U.S. delivery companies also are competing for business in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

In June, DHL said it bought a 49 percent interest in ASTAR Air Cargo, a Florida-based airline that operates out of DHL’s Wilmington hub and serves customers in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. DHL also invested in Polar Air Cargo Inc. of Purchase, N.Y., to improve express delivery service from the United States to Asia.

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DPJ, People's New Party to submit bill to freeze postal privatization for 1 year

Posted by | Aug 13, 2007 | |

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which became the largest bloc in the House of Councillors as a result of the July 29 election, is set to submit to the chamber a bill that would freeze postal privatization for one year.

The DPJ will co-sponsor the bill with another opposition party, People’s New Party, DPJ officials said.

Over the one-year period, the DPJ intends to work out bills to review the privatization of Japan Post scheduled for Oct. 1 this year.

A package of postal privatization bills were passed into law after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the 2005 House of Representatives election.

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DHL awarded industry accolade for best customer support

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

DHL has been awarded the Japan Institute of Information Technology’s (JIIT) highest award — ‘Best Customer Support of The Year 2007’ — in recognition of its contact center initiatives that enable the customer service unit to achieve productivity and quality targets, while cementing its role as a profit center.

JIIT established its ‘Best Customer Support of The Year’ award in May 1998 to promote improved productivity and more effective management systems within customer support units in public and private enterprises. Award applications are submitted every April for screening by JIIT staff members, who follow up with visits to applicants’ contact centers. Award winners are announced in August. This year, JIIT honored contact centers at DHL Japan and three other firms for outstanding contributions to their companies’ operations.

DHL Japan has in place strict Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each of its contact centers. These KPIs include answering at least 90 pct of all calls within 10 seconds, and maintaining a hang up rate — the percentage of all incoming calls abandoned by the caller before communication with an agent is established — of no greater than 0.1% of all incoming calls that ring for more than 15 seconds.

Assessment of contact center performance is based on inspections conducted by a team of internal quality control staff and a mystery caller program undertaken by an outside organization.

DHL Japan also emphasizes the quality of its agent responses, and believes that the 2007 JIIT award validates recent efforts to reinforce training of in-house staff and incentive program improvements that allow contact center agents to proactively propose services to customers — changes that have facilitated KPI achievement and raised profitability.

The results speak for themselves: sales of Time Definite Delivery (TDD) value-added services deriving from requests for pickup have risen significantly, with profit doubling in fiscal 2005 and nearly quadrupling in fiscal 2006, both relative to fiscal 2004, when contact center initiatives had yet to be implemented. DHL Japan has successfully positioned its contact centers as highly-profitable units within the company.

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