Japan Post

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Japan Post (日本郵政公社, Nippon Yūsei Kōsha^?) is a public corporation in Japan offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It has over 400,000 employees and runs 24,700 post offices throughout Japan and is the nation's largest employer. One third of all Japanese government employees work for Japan Post. As of 2005, the president of the company is Masaharu Ikuta, formerly chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.

Japan Post runs the world's largest postal savings system and is often said to be the largest holder of personal savings in the world: with ¥224 trillion ($2.1 trillion) of household assets in its yu-cho savings accounts and ¥126 trillion ($1.2 trillion) of household assets in its kampo life insurance services, its holdings account for 25 percent of household assets in Japan. Japan Post also holds about ¥140 trillion (one fifth) of the Japanese national debt in the form of government bonds. The privatization of Japan Post is currently one of the most contentious points of political debate in Japan.

1 History
2 Types of post office
3 Postal symbol
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

LDP manifesto from the 2005 election, showcasing Koizumi's contention that "the privatization of Japan Post is the core of our reforms."

The company was born on April 2, 2003, as a public corporation, replacing the old Postal Services Agency (郵政事業庁, Yūsei Jigyōchō^?). Japan Post's formation was part of the immediate past Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's long-term reform plan which would culminate in the full privatization of the postal service.

The privatization of the company, particularly its postal services division is a decade-long political matter in Japan. The Cabinet announced on September 2003 that they have planned to divide the company into four, which are postal services, postal savings services, postal life insurance services and window networks (post offices), and privatize each in April 2007. Quite a number of people, including Prime Minister Koizumi, back the privatization plan while there are strong political oppositions to it within both of largest parties, LDP and DPJ. Opponents claim that this move would result in the closure of post offices and in job losses at the nation's largest employer. However, proponents contend that privatization would allow for a more efficient and flexible use of the company's funds that would help revitalize Japan's economy, which is still recovering from a series of four recessions since 1991. Proponents also claim that Japan Post has become an enormous source of corruption and patronage. Koizumi calls the privatization a major part in his efforts to curb government spending and the growth of the national debt.

When a bill to privatize Japan Post was voted down in the upper house (which cannot be dissolved), Prime Minister Koizumi dissolved the more powerful lower house of the Japanese Diet. As a result, Japan held nationwide elections to the House of Representatives on September 11, 2005. Koizumi subsequently won this election, gaining the necessary supermajority and a mandate for reform.

Office building of Tokyo

[edit] Types of post office

There are two types of post office (郵便局, yūbinkyoku^?)) in Japan, the normal kind, and ones involved in distribution and collection of post. These distribution centres are known as 集配局 shūhaikyoku. Most post offices are not distribution centres, only the larger offices are. Distribution centres also offer a wider range of services for businesses than normal post offices.

[edit] Postal symbol

The symbol of a post office in Japan is a capital letter T with a bar over it, 〒. This is used on the signs of post offices, on post boxes, and it is also sometimes used before the postcode on letters. The symbol can be obtained by typing yuubin in a Japanese word processor and then converting it. There are several variant forms of this symbol in Unicode, including a form in a circle, 〶, which is the official Geographical Survey Institute of Japan map symbol for a post office.

〠 is a character of Japan Post. Its name is Number-kun. Japan Post released a new character, "Poston," in 1998, so Number-kun is rarely used nowadays.