Tag: Japan

Japan Post Corp, a new stock company set up by the public corporation Japan Post, began operations Monday in the buildup to Japan’s postal privatization from October 2007. Japan Post Corp. will become a holding company on Oct. 1, 2007, the date when the nation’s postal services begin a step-by-step 10-year privatization process. The public corporation will be split into four units under the holding company. The newly established firm will focus on plans to manage 260,000 employees and assets now controlled by Japan Post and study possible business models for the four operating companies. Former Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. President Yoshifumi Nishikawa was named president of the new company at an inaugural board meeting Friday. Former Financial Services Agency Commissioner Shokichi Takagi and Hiroaki Dan, senior executive vice president of Japan Post, were appointed directors. The three executives will jointly select executives to run the four operating units.

Japan Post will not be able to develop a new computer system in time for October 2007 – when Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister, has pledged to split it into four separate units in preparation for full privatisation – according to its president. “We cannot do it. It’s such a gigantic business,” said Masaharu Ikuta, president of Japan Post, referring to the world’s biggest savings institution. The post office has more than Dollars 3,000bn (Pounds 1,700bn) in deposits, 280,000 employees and 24,000 branches. It is due to begin a 10-year transition towards full privatisation from October 2007, a six-month delay from the original timetable, which was disrupted because of initial parliamentary opposition. Mr Ikuta’s remarks come at a particularly sensitive time, given the high-profile failure of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s computer system to deal with high volumes of orders. Those problems led to the early closure of the TSE on Wednesday and warnings that it might have to shut down again if volumes were too high.

The government on Monday appointed Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, and four other business leaders as outside board members of a company to be founded next Monday to prepare for privatizing Japan’s postal services. The other four leaders are Uichiro Niwa, chairman of Itochu Corp., Haruo Ushio, chairman of Ushio Inc., Takashi Nishioka, chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Reiko Okutani, president of The R Co. The appointment of the five outside directors will be formalized at the preparatory company’s inaugural meeting slated for Friday.

The government is eyeing Toshihiro Takahashi, currently vice president of Japan Post and a former Toyota Motor Corp. managing director, to assume the post of president of a postal company that will manage over-the-counter services of post offices across Japan from Oct. 1, 2007, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday. Takahashi, 66, is recognized for his success in improving the efficiency of Japan Post’s mail delivery operations by introducing Toyota-style management techniques, they said. He assumed the deputy chief post at Japan Post in April 2003 when the public corporation took over postal services from the government. The over-the-counter service company is one of four stock firms to be created in October next year by splitting Japan Post’s businesses as part of the postal privatization.