Tag: Japan

Over 70 pct of Japan’s 20,000-plus post offices reported losses for the fiscal year that ended in March this year, Japan Post said Monday. Of 20,242 post offices nationwide, 14,661 suffered losses for the year, an increase of 500 from the previous year, the public corporation said. By business division, 18,993 post offices, or 93.8 pct of the total, incurred losses in their mail delivery operations, while the number of loss-making offices nearly matched that of profitable ones in postal savings and insurance operations, Japan Post said.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan urged the Japanese government Tuesday to ensure that equivalent conditions of competition with private-sector firms will be applied to postal entities, which will be spun off from Japan Post and fully privatized by 2017 under the newly enacted postal reform laws. The body representing more than 1,400 companies said that Japan should follow “global best practices” such as treating domestic and foreign service providers equally and securing transparency and fairness in implementing the privatization laws.
“The ACCJ believes that privatization consistent with the global best practices identified in our report is crucial to achieving favorable results,” said ACCJ Executive Director Donald Westmore in releasing the organization’s report at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo.

Japan Post’s net profit totaled 998.4 billion yen in April-September, about 2.8 times the figure for the same period last year, the state-run postal service company said Monday. Although Japan Post reported an asset impairment loss of 224.3 billion yen and costs of about 5 billion yen to prepare for privatization, such red ink was more than offset by returns from stock investment. Recurring profit went 2.38-fold to 1,526.6 billion yen, while revenue rose 20.0 pct to 12,220.4 billion yen.