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Sleep tight: Japan Post data center in Chiba

Since last year, the government has talked about tapping so-called kyumin koza to help fund reconstruction in the areas hit by the March 11 disaster. Kyumin koza are “sleeping bank accounts,” meaning savings in financial institutions that have gone untouched for long periods of time. The government says it needs at least ¥50 billion for reconstruction, and every year banks “uncover” about ¥80 billion in unclaimed accounts, 90 percent of which contain less than ¥10,000 each. For banking purposes the definition of a kyumin koza is an account from which no transactions have been carried out for ten years and whose holder the bank has not been able to contact.

Under such circumstances, banks typically move this money into the plus column on their books, which is why the financial industry isn’t too crazy about the government’s plan to commandeer the comatose cash. The banks’ argument is that even though they have taken over this money, if the account holder does show up with proper identification and other pertinent documentation they will happily return it; but they couldn’t do that if the government has taken it first.

It’s a credible argument, though Japanese weekly magazine Gendai points out that ever since the end of the bubble era in the early 1990s, banks have become very strict about closing bank accounts, meaning that someone who had not touched their money for more than 10 years would probably require a lot of paperwork to prove the account was his. It would thus be very difficult for individuals to access accounts of family members who have died, since those individuals would have to produce death certificates, proof of relationship and other documents. Moreover, an account can only be closed at the branch where it was opened. It’s assumed that a large number of sleeping accounts have gone untouched because the account holder died without informing his or her family of its existence.

Why the sudden jump in "sleeping account" proceeds? →

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Got a job

The frontline of Japan’s privatization steamroller is the post office. Junichiro Koizumi staked his political career on removing Japan Post from government control when he made his bid for reelection in 2005 and won by a landslide. However, Shizuka Kamei, the leader of the small Kokumin Shinto party who recently resigned as financial services minister, has staked his own political career on reversing the privatization of Japan Post owing to loyalties within the post-office community. Before quitting he asked Japan Post to offer more regular full-time positions to its non-regular workforce.

Kamei’s target was 100,000 employees, but last week JP announced that about 65,000 of its non-regular staff were actually qualified to take the test to become regular full-time employees, and among them only 34,000 said they would apply for the test by the July 28 deadline. Since these non-regular workers already toil full-time for all intents and purposes, there seemed to be some confusion about why more wouldn’t want to take the test. One of the main reasons, according to the Asahi Shimbun, is that some of them fear they would be eligible for transfers to other cities if they become regular employees.

Otherwise, the decision seems a no-brainer. Regular JP workers make on average three times as much as non-regular JP workers for the same number of hours worked and the same job description, and, of course, non-regular employees are not eligible for advancement and raises, and do not receive benefits, like sick pay. One non-regular employee interviewed by Asahi said he’s been working at JP as a sorter for 14 years. He works three 12-hour shifts a week and receives ¥2.3 million a year before taxes.

This individual wanted to take the test to get regular employment, but at first he couldn’t. The initial criteria for switching to regular employment was that the non-regular employee had to have worked for JP at least 30 years, be less than 60 years old, and is currently working at least 30 hours a week. In practice, the employee fit all three criteria, but in theory he missed out on the last one. His employment contract stated that he was only hired to work 27.5 hours a week, even though he always worked overtime thus putting his hours in excess of 30. But overtime didn’t count. Apparently, quite a few non-regular workers who have the same problem expressed it to their superiors, and before Kamei left his post he changed the criteria to 20 hours a week minimum.

All these potential new regular employees would cost JP an extra ¥100 billion a year. Since going private, the company has shifted to part-time and non-regular workers — it only hires about 2,000 regular employees a year — and the shift back would be expensive. Japan Post now has 210,000 non-regular employees, about half its workforce, making it the country’s single biggest employer of non-regular workers.

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