Japan Post on Thursday announced that it has reached an agreement to buy ASOCIA CORP., a DAIMARU INC. distribution and logistics subsidiary. Pending approval by the Ministry of Communications, the public postal corporation on Oct. 3 will purchase 67.6 per cent of Asocia’s outstanding stock from Daimaru for 649.98 million yen (USD5.9 million).
Read MoreTHE TUSSLE between Japan Post and Mr Junichiro Koizumi commenced in 1992. In the very first press conference he held as the Minister in-charge, he vowed to cut the Postal Services System (PSS) to size (it was renamed Japan Post in 1992). He stepped up efforts after he took over as Prime Minister in 2001
Having failed to get full parliamentary support for his Bill, he has dissolved Parliament and is seeking public support in an election scheduled on September 11. Why should the reform of postal service raise such political hackles? Japan Post is not an ordinary postal agency. It operates 25,000 post offices nationwide and covers remote, mountainous and thinly populated areas. It has 400,000 employees. In the past, post-masters were leaders of standing in the rural areas and guided public opinion. Many owed their jobs to political bosses and were the bulwarks of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). More than delivery of mail, its role in raising savings and insurance funds has been phenomenal. Aggregate savings deposits with Japan Post amounted to 214 trillion yen ($1.98 trillion) last year. It is the largest financial institution in the world. Its deposits are equal to the combined deposits of four of Japan’s largest banks. It holds 33 per cent of the country’s time deposits and has contributed substantially to Japan Government Bonds (JGB)
Read MoreJapan Post said Friday it will improve its package delivery service by allowing people to use cellphone-operated lockers at railway stations to receive parcels, beginning in September. The new service for Yu-Pack parcel delivery costs no additional money and will initially be available at lockers in 55 locations, mainly railway stations and shopping centers in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. The service will be offered in collaboration with X-Cube Corp., an operator of coin-operated lockers that use cellphones as keys. Japan Post said it will initially target users of mail-order services and young people who tend to be away from home so that they can easily pick up packages while commuting.
Read MoreThe Liberal Democratic Party is pledging in its policy platform to pass in the next Diet session the postal privatization legislation defeated in the upper house earlier this month. “Postal privatization is the main issue in the lower house election,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told a news conference Friday at which he unveiled the party’s policy outline. He dissolved the lower house Aug. 8 in response to the upper house rebuff, setting the stage for a Sept. 11 general election. Should the LDP and coalition partner New Komeito be able to secure a majority in the lower house, Koizumi said the postal bills would be resubmitted in a special Diet session to convene within 30 days of the election. The legislation calls for spinning off Japan Post into four companies in April 2007, with full privatization taking place by 2017. But the composition of the upper house will remain unchanged, and the bills could be voted down again.
Read MoreJapan Post is in final talks to buy Asocia Corp, a delivery company affiliated with department store operator Daimaru Inc, in a bid to strengthen its services in areas where it competes with private-sector firms, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday. The national daily said the move would be Japan Post’s first acquisition of a company and that the public corporation is considering acquiring or forming a capital tie-up with more than one delivery company.
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