The Japanese post office is in talks with its union on cutting its 297,000-person workforce by 20,000 over the next five years, according to wire service reports.
The planned cut is in line with a government plan to put the three major divisions of government-run postal services — savings, insurance and mail — under the administration of a planned state-run corporation in 2003.
The post office sank into the red in fiscal 1998 as a result of intense competition with private parcel delivery and trucking companies. It is expected to lose 30 billion yen in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2002.
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