Japan Post President Hiroya Masuda (left) and JR East President Yuji Fukasawa held a press conference.
JR East Group and Japan Post Group, two major groups with Japan’s leading bases, are teaming up to solve social issues.
On February 21st, Japan Post President Hiroya Masuda and JR East President Yuji Fukasawa held a press conference, and Japan Post, Japan Post, and JR East signed an agreement to strengthen collaboration with the aim of solving social issues. announced.
In 2018, Japan Post and JR East concluded an agreement regarding regional and social revitalization. Efforts have been made to integrate the operation of post offices and stations and to establish shared offices.
Through this strengthened collaboration, in addition to turning post offices and stations into local community hubs, the realization of sustainable logistics by linking the logistics networks of both companies’ groups, co-creative town development through the use of assets, promotion of local industry, and new local projects. Promote five areas of local livelihood support through creation and digitalization.
Impact of 120 million Japan Post accounts + 25 million mobile Suicas
An overview of the strengthened collaboration concluded by Japan Post, Japan Post, and JR East.
“By strengthening our collaboration this time, we will expand our collaboration with JR East to the entire Postal Group (not just Japan Post). I believe that by working as a group as a whole, we will be able to come up with even more wisdom.” Mr. Masuda)
Regarding this agreement, Mr. Masuda of Japan Post expresses his enthusiasm as follows.
The focus is not just on the large number of physical locations. The number of accounts held by both companies and financial platforms such as mobile Suica will also serve as a major stepping stone to address labor shortages and support DX (digital transformation).
Regarding this point, Mr. Masuda said that “Japan Post Bank is also included (in this case),” as a sign of strengthening cooperation, and Mr. Fukasawa of JR East also said,
“In the medium to long term, we aim to provide cashless services that are convenient for local life through collaboration between Japan Post Bank, which boasts 120 million accounts, and Mobile Suica, which has issued 25 million Suica cards. I would like to contribute to the improvement of
emphasizing the latent strengths of both groups.”We’re currently working out what we can do concretely, such as making it possible to charge Mobile Suica from Japan Post Bank accounts in some way.”(Mr. Fukasawa) said.
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Social issues have a major impact on the management of both companies
Issues facing rural areas, such as population decline due to the declining birthrate and aging population, depopulation, and population outflow to cities, are having a major impact on the management of both companies’ groups.
“Both groups are facing the reality that the number of customers at post offices and stations is decreasing.In this situation, we would like to work on turning post offices and stations into hubs for local communities.” (Mr. Masuda)
In the medium to long term, we will revitalize local communities by adding functions to post offices and stations that meet local needs, such as introducing lounges where local residents can gather, administrative counter functions, and handling products from both companies’ groups. The idea is to make it a base.
However, social issues in rural areas are not simply problems that can be solved by large corporations. In order to support the resolution of real issues faced by the region and to make it sustainable, it is also important to balance it with business.
As part of this initiative, in fiscal 2022, the Japan Post Group will launch the “Local Co-Creation Initiative” to support the resolution of social issues by seconding employees to local venture companies. It is attracting attention from other companies and local governments as an in-depth regional co-creation initiative.
How will the experience gained from local co-creation initiatives affect the strengthening of this collaboration? Mr. Masuda said:
“By sending (employees) to each region through the local co-creation initiative, our employees have gained considerable experience.What are the needs of the region and what is lacking?This collaboration Using the strengthening framework, we would like to involve them (who are involved in local co-creation initiatives) and move forward with areas that can be resolved with JR East.” (Mr. Masuda)
In addition, Naoki Sunayama, Executive Officer of Japan Post (in charge of Business Co-Creation Department), said that in various parts of Japan, things and cultures that local people had previously taken for granted are changing from an urban perspective and from inbound tourism. He points out that more and more things are being reviewed or discovered from an outside perspective. He expressed his expectations for this collaboration as follows:
“Maybe post offices and stations can help add value to such “commonplace items.” In addition to moving and consuming things, we also want to support communities centered around stations and post offices. Personally, I hope that we can rediscover the value of a warm community that exists in the past.” (Mr. Sunayama)
Source: BusinessInsider
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