The Japan Post group was inundated with complaints from 200,000 holders of Japan Post Insurance Co. policies as it looks into a growing scandal surrounding dubious sales practices.

Japan Post Holdings Co. undertook a number of separate investigations in the aftermath of the scandal over inappropriate sales practices involving insurance policies that left countless customers feeling they had been cheated.

While looking at 183,000 or so specific cases of questionable sales practices, the Japan Post group simultaneously mailed letters containing return postcards to all 19 million holders of Japan Post Insurance policies. The letters asked the recipients to confirm their policies and report any problem they found.

As of Dec. 13, about one million customers had sent back the prepaid postcards. Of that figure, 200,000 or so complained that they had signed contracts against their better judgment, and some asked for more in-depth investigations to be carried out, executives said Dec. 18.

Others indicated they were made to repeatedly sign contracts and then nullify them. Sales agents received a commission for each new contract signed.

An outside committee of experts that was also set up to look into the sales practices issued a damning report on Dec. 18.

Tetsuo Ito, a lawyer who headed the committee, was blistering in his criticism of the management philosophy at the Japan Post group.

"It did not nurture a corporate culture of deeply pursuing problems or holding thorough investigations to determine if other problems existed," Ito said at a news conference to announce the report's findings. "Everyone made efforts to ensure that problems did not come to light."

The Financial Services Agency, which is also conducting its own investigation into the sales of insurance policies, is expected to announce administrative disciplinary measures against Japan Post Co. and Japan Post Insurance as early as next week.

The two companies at one time were planning to resume sales of the insurance policies in January, but that could be delayed if the FSA issues an order to suspend some business operations.

Although Japan Post Insurance offers the policies, actual sales are handled by the thousands of post office employees working for Japan Post.

Japan Post Holdings on Dec. 18 also disclosed progress being made on internal investigations into suspect sales practices. Of the 183,000 questionable contracts signed over the past five years, suspicions of possible violations of laws or internal regulations had been raised in 12,836 instances as of Dec. 15.

To date, action has been taken in 2,487 of those suspect cases.

Legal violations existed in 48 cases, such as making false explanations to prospective customers before contracts were signed. There were 622 cases of violations of internal regulations.

The number of such cases will surely increase as about half of the suspect transactions still have not been investigated while action remains pending in 3,985 cases.

The 183,000 or so cases of questionable sales practices involve about 156,000 customers. Of that number, about 45,000 have sought help in how they can go about restoring policies they were made to nullify.

The outside investigative committee blamed the questionable sales practices on a low level of awareness among post office employees about the necessity of legal compliance. It also cited a corporate culture that turned a blind eye to suspect sales practices if it meant meeting sales quotas.

Even as it pointed the finger at corporate management, the committee did not conclude that the organization as a whole was involved in shady sales practices.

But it recommended a number of house cleaning changes, such as revising in-house worker evaluation practices that place undue weight on the number of new contracts signed.

The committee's report contained statements by company executives about why shady sales practices were allowed to continue.

One executive with Japan Post said, "We have no culture of emphasizing the interests of the customer."

An executive of Japan Post Insurance pointed to the past history of the companies as public entities and the bureaucratic mind-set that fostered. The executive said a common tendency for dealing with problematic cases was to pass them off to another office or department.

The report said Japan Post Insurance tried to downplay the problems and did nothing to analyze the causes or take steps to prevent a recurrence.

The report also had harsh words for Japan Post, saying its multilayered corporate structure made it difficult for those at the top to grasp the full extent of problems. The committee found that many post office employees were more interested in commissions from new contracts rather than ensuring that appropriate contracts were being signed. It noted that those who failed to meet their quotas were often severely scolded by superiors.

Insiders said tepid efforts by Japan Post officials to investigate suspect sales practices also contributed to allowing the problem to fester.

Until now, even if doubts arose about questionable sales practices after a customer was questioned, such cases were not certified as being suspect if the post office employee involved submitted a report denying the allegation.

The outside committee criticized the Japan Post group for depending excessively on confessions from post office employees.

That may account for the low number of disciplinary measures handed out.

It noted that 3,011 post office employees were investigated in fiscal 2018 in connection with possible suspect contracts. But disciplinary measures were given in less than 10 percent of the cases because the employee denied the allegation in all other cases.

One post office employee said a superior once said, "Just deny everything because without evidence there will be no disciplinary measure against you."

Japan Post officials have said disciplinary measures would be handed out even to those employees who deny allegations if evidence exists.

However, a post office employee in Tokyo said no action was taken against some of those who insisted they had no recollection of wrongdoing and requested that recorded data be presented as evidence against them.

(This article was compiled from reports by Ayumi Shintaku, Tomoya Fujita and Shuhei Shibata.)