THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 14, 2025 at 13:43 JST
A notice about revised standard penalty amounts that Japan Post issued to post offices in December (The Asahi Shimbun)
Japan Post Co. failed to review subcontractor penalties for six months after the Fair Trade Commission determined that some were illegal and called for corrective action.
The company issued a notice about the revisions to post offices nationwide on Dec. 19, a day after The Asahi Shimbun sent a written inquiry on the issue, the newspaper learned.
According to sources, the FTC investigated contracts between a post office in the Kanto region and subcontractors commissioned to deliver Yu-Pack parcels from 2023 to 2024.
The commission found that certain penalty amounts were unjustifiably high and that the post office collected those charges from several subcontractors without sufficient explanations.
In June, the FTC concluded that the cases constituted violations of the Subcontract Law and gave administrative guidance to Japan Post to rectify its “breach of contract” penalty system.
In the prefecture where the post office was located, there were instances in which 30,000 yen ($190) was charged for a mistaken delivery and 100,000 yen for a customer complaint about the smell of cigarette smoke, the sources said.
The FTC completed its investigation after examining this prefecture to prioritize seeking prompt corrective action for the identified violations. However, sources said similar levels of penalties were charged in other prefectures as well.
The Asahi Shimbun learned about the FTC action, which was not announced by the watchdog, and sent a written inquiry to Japan Post on Dec. 18.
The newspaper, which published an article on the issue on Jan. 6, obtained a Japan Post notice dated Dec. 19 addressed to post offices nationwide.
The notice about the “review of standard penalty amounts” said, “An outside organization pointed out that ‘different penalty amounts depending on post offices are unfair’ and ‘penalty amounts are excessive at certain post offices.’”
It presented “nationally unified standard penalty amounts,” such as 5,000 yen for a mistaken delivery and 10,000 yen for a complaint over cigarette odor. The Japan Post notice indicated this standardization will take effect in April, in principle.
The revised amounts are close to guidelines that have been specified in inhouse regulations.
The notice did not mention the FTC’s action.
An attached document listed planned answers to questions from post offices.
One entry told post offices to “politely decline” potential requests from subcontractors for refunds of the penalties they paid in the past.
However, sources said Japan Post apologized to some subcontractors last autumn and refunded a portion of past penalties the FTC deemed illegal.
Japan Post said it issued the notice in question and clarified that the “outside organization” mentioned in it is the FTC, not The Asahi Shimbun.
The company for the first time acknowledged that it received the administrative guidance.
Japan Post surveyed post offices nationwide in August about penalty amounts and the breaches of contract for which they were charged.
The company said it did not discover cases similar to those identified by the FTC.
Japan Post only said there were differences in the way post offices had put the penalty system into practice and it plans to standardize the operational rules as early as April.
The Subcontract Law is designed to protect the interests of subcontractors.
But Japan Post’s survey only covered post offices. The company said it did not directly ask for information from subcontractors and provided no reason why it did not.
(This article was written by Nobuya Sawa, a senior staff writer, Yosuke Takashima and Yuji Masuyama.)
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