JCP calls on Japan Post to cancel plan to remove 738 ATMs

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JCP calls on Japan Post to cancel plan to remove 738 ATMs

Anticipating the privatization of the Japanese postal service to be carried out on October 1, Japan Post is pushing ahead with a plan to reduce the number of its automatic teller machines (ATMs) across the country in defiance of local users' opposition.

About 30 percent (738) of 2,564 ATMs installed in facilities other than post offices are subject to the reduction plan. The public corporation has already begun removing ATMs in hospitals and schools.

A public vocational school in Kyoto collected 6,600 signatures from students and parents for a petition in opposition to the removal of an ATM from the school because the students use the machine to receive money sent from their parents living in distant places. Although the school principal submitted the signatures to Japan Post and requested it to reconsider the plan, the corporation refused.

On January 18, Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Yoshii Hidekatsu and House of Councilors member Yoshikawa Haruko made representations to Japan Post, calling for the cancellation of the plan.

Yoshii demanded that the corporation stop forcing the removal of ATMs, an action detrimental to users.

Japan Post is also considering closing as many as 500 out of some 4,400 post offices whose operations are entrusted to local governments, cooperatives, or individuals. Yoshikawa called on Japan Post to maintain the comprehensive postal network in Japan.
- Akahata, January 19, 2007