Photo/Illutration The Magome Post Office is located in a famed historic district of Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture. (Captured from the Japan Post Co. website)

Japan Post Co. will begin offering weekend services at select post offices in tourist areas while reducing opening hours on weekdays, starting in June.

The initiative aims to cut costs and reallocate staff while providing more convenience to travelers and optimizing efficiency.

The first post office to implement this new schedule will be the Magome Post Office in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, according to a company internal document.

The post office is located along the scenic, stone-paved streets of the historic Magomejuku district, which had been a staging post along a major travel route in the pre-modern era.

Under the new plan, the post office will operate on weekends from spring through fall, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., focusing on postal services and the sale of goods. Banking and insurance services will not be available on weekends.

To accommodate this shift, weekday hours will be reduced by five hours, with the post office open from 9 a.m. to noon.

Additionally, the nearby Kawaue Post Office will adopt a half-day schedule on weekdays, operating from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., to free up staff for weekend shifts.

Japan Post plans to expand the policy to additional locations if the schedule changes prove successful.

Separately, half-day operations will also be introduced at two post offices in a small town in Gunma Prefecture, where usage is declining.

The initiative is part of a broader effort to reorganize postal operations in the face of mounting financial pressures and limited resources.

With communication increasingly shifting to digital platforms, Japan Post is struggling to manage the annual 1 trillion yen ($6.98 billion) operating costs of its nationwide network of physical branches.

In response, many post offices across the country have begun shortening their business hours and implementing midday closures.

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