The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will start a three-year project from fiscal 2019 to explore the possibility of new businesses using post offices, selecting about 15 areas for experimental operations.
The ministry will mainly target low-population areas for services such as delivery of goods from local shops, videophone links for administrative services, and using electronic devices to locate elderly people and children.
The move is expected to help improve the earnings of post offices, which face a severe business envi- ronment due to a decline in the nation's volume of mail.
The ministry will include about 150 million yen (1.35 million dollars) in its budget request for fiscal 2019.
In addition to mail delivery, post offices handle over-the-counter services for Japan Post Bank Co., such as deposits and withdrawals, and for Japan Post Insurance Co., such as sales of insurance goods.
About 24,000 post offices nationwide are obliged by law to offer universal services (see below). The spread of email and other communication methods caused a decline in the number of mail items handled. This downward trend is expected to continue in the future, exacerbated by an upward trend of labor costs for delivery staff due to a labor shortage. Post offices in underpopulated areas tend to find it more difficult than those in other locations to make profits through their regular business. They are challenged to find new revenue sources to maintain the post office network.
Under the envisioned experiment, post offices will collect fresh food and other items that residents order from local shops via telephone or internet and then deliver them to residents' homes along with their mail. Post offices are expected to receive delivery fees either from the residents or the shops.
Videophones will be installed at post offices to allow visiting residents to talk with municipal officials and go through administrative procedures with face-to-face support. People living in a municipality covering a large geographical area often find their local government office too far away to visit, and post offices nearby are expected to act on behalf of the municipality to deal with some of the administrative procedures. In the same manner, a tourism information center can provide sightseeing information via videophone to tourists who visit a post office. Post offices will then receive commission charges from the municipalities or relevant entities.
Post offices also try to provide moni- toring services utilizing information-communication technology, or ICT, by having elderly people and children wear IC tags that can be detected by sensors mounted on mailboxes and postal vehicles and motorbikes so that the tag can inform their family of their whereabouts whenever they pass near such a box or vehicle. Residents who request the service will pay a charge.
The ministry will encourage the spread of successful cases nationwide.
-- Universal service
The equal provision of services essential to people's lives, such as postal mail and communications, to every resident of a country including those who live in mountainous regions or remote islands. Japan Post Co. is required by law to allow residents to send or receive mail anywhere in the country as well as offer over-the-counter services for Japan Post Bank Co. and Japan Post Insurance Co.
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