Tag: Japan

The government is finalizing a plan to allow people to post mail at convenience stores and delivery companies’ outlets in a bid to encourage new entrants into the mail business, now effectively monopolized by the public Japan Post, the Asahi Shimbun reported Saturday. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is reportedly examining a plan to abolish a rule under the mail service laws that says mail can only be accepted at postboxes, and another rule that prevents new entrants from access to Japan Post’s mail service networks.
The changes will remove a major hurdle for entering the mail service business – setting up some 100,000 postboxes across Japan – for any newcomers when the business is opened to private competitors in 2007, the daily said.

Japan Post said Wednesday its mail service business is likely to fall into the red, with a net loss of 5.6 billion yen, in the current 2006 fiscal year for the first time in four years. In fiscal 2005 that ended in March, the mail delivery business recorded a 99.1 percent plunge in net profit from the previous year to 200 million yen, Japan Post said. The profit contraction is blamed in part on a drop in the amount of mail handled by post offices due to increased use of e-mail, according to analysts.

Japan Post saw net profit in its mail and parcel service in fiscal 2005 fall 99 pct from the previous year to 200 million yen, informed sources said Monday.
The mail and parcel service experienced a fall in business volume for the fourth straight year due to lower demand reflecting the spread of the Internet, the sources said. In addition, the segment’s personnel costs increased in the year to March after the public company boosted wages to part-time workers. Heavy computer system development costs to prepare for the privatization, slated to begin in October 2007, also weighed on its earnings.

Japan Post said Friday the number of parcels delivered by the public enterprise under its “Yu-Pack” service in fiscal 2005 totaled 246.6 million, up 14.9 pct from the previous year, hitting a record high for the second consecutive year. Increases in the number of users from department stores and mail-order houses contributed to the increase, along with the growth in the number of convenience stores that accept Yu-Pack parcels as agents, Japan Post said. Its booklet parcels for magazines and brochures jumped 50.5 pct to 1,828.3 million.