Japan Post

Japan Post
日本郵政公社

Former type	Government-owned
Industry	Courier
Fate	Privatized into Japan Post Holdings
Founded	April 1, 2003, by reorganization of the Postal Services Agency
Defunct	September 30, 2007
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Maejima Hisoka
Revenue	¥23,061 billion JPY (2006)
Net income	¥1,993 billion JPY (2006)
Number of employees	256,572 (full-time, 2006)
Divisions	Postal Service, Postal Savings, Postal Life Insurance

Japan Post (日本郵政公社, Nippon Yūsei Kōsha) was a government-owned corporation in Japan that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It was the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and ran 24,700 post offices throughout Japan. One third of all Japanese government employees worked for Japan Post. As of 2005, the President of the company was Masaharu Ikuta, formerly Chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.

Japan Post ran the world's largest postal savings system and was often said to be the largest holder of personal savings in the world: with ¥224 trillion ($2.1 trillion) of household assets in its yū-cho savings accounts and ¥126 trillion ($1.2 trillion) of household assets in its kampo life insurance services, its holdings accounted for 25 percent of household assets in Japan. Japan Post also held about ¥140 trillion (one fifth) of the Japanese national debt in the form of government bonds.

On October 1, 2007 Japan Post was privatized following a fierce political debate that was settled by the general election of 2005. Following privatization, the Japan Post Group companies operate the postal business.

In 2010, privatization was put on hold. The Japanese Ministry of Finance remains the 100% shareholder. However, on October 26, 2012, the Japanese government unveiled plans to list shares of the Japan Post Holdings Company within three years, partly to raise money for the reconstruction of areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.^[1]

Postal privatization

The company was born on April 2, 2003, as a government-owned corporation, replacing the old Postal Services Agency (郵政事業庁, Yūsei Jigyōchō). Japan Post's formation was part of then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's long-term reform plan and was intended to culminate in the full privatization of the postal service. The privatization plan encountered both support and opposition across the Japanese political spectrum, including the two largest parties, the LDP and the DPJ. Opponents claimed that the move would result in the closure of post offices and job losses at the nation's largest employer. However, proponents contended that privatization would allow for a more efficient and flexible use of the company's funds, which would help revitalize Japan's economy. Proponents also claimed that Japan Post had become an enormous source of corruption and patronage. Koizumi called the privatization a major element in his efforts to curb government spending and the growth of the national debt. Most opposition parties supported postal privatization in principle, but criticized Koizumi's bill. Many considered the bill deeply flawed because it provided for too long a period for full implementation and included too many loopholes that might create a privatization in name only.

In September 2003, Koizumi's cabinet proposed splitting Japan Post into four separate companies: a bank, an insurance company, a postal service company, and a fourth company to handle the post offices as retail outlets for the other three entities. Each of these companies would be privatized in April 2007. In 2005, the lower house of the Japanese legislature passed the bill to complete this reform by a handful of votes, with many members of Koizumi's LDP voting against their own government. The bill was subsequently defeated in the upper house because of scores of defections from the ruling coalition. Koizumi immediately dissolved the lower house and scheduled a general election to be held on September 11, 2005. He declared the election to be a referendum on postal privatization. Koizumi won this election, gaining the necessary supermajority in the lower house, which he took as a mandate for reform. The final version of the bill to privatize Japan Post in 2007 was passed in October 2005.^[2]

Regaining the state-run business

Later in 2010, the privatization was put on hold, and the Japanese Ministry of Finance remains the 100% shareholder. ^[3]

Types of post office

There are two types of postal facilities in Japan: standard post offices (郵便局, yūbinkyoku), and the larger distribution centers (集配局, shūhaikyoku). Distribution centers offer a wider range of services for businesses than standard post offices do.

Postal symbol

Mailbox markings

The symbol for a post office in Japan is a stylized katakana syllable te (テ), 〒. This is used on the signs of post offices, on post boxes, and before the postcode on envelopes and packages. It is derived from the Japanese word teishin (逓信, literally, "communications").^[4]

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.

See also

• Japanese addressing system
• Package delivery

Notes

References

• Japan Post Annual Report 2006

External links

• Takahara, Kanako (September 29, 2007). "All Eyes on Japan Post as Privatization Begins" (Newspaper article). Japan Times. Retrieved 1 February 2008. 

Wikinews has related news: Koizumi Wins Electoral Mandate for Postal Reform

• Koizumi Loses Postal Reform Vote in Upper House, Calls for New Elections
• Koizumi Wins Postal Reform Vote in Lower House
• (English) Company Website
  • Post
  • Bank
  • Insurance (Japanese)
• Yahoo! - Japan Post Company Profile