A public postal corporation scheduled to be created in April must be capitalized at 14 trillion yen and have a capital adequacy ratio of 4 percent, mirroring the requirements imposed upon several domestic banks, posts minister Toranosuke Katayama said Thursday.
The capitalization figure is way above the 1.9 trillion yen estimated previously by the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry. It virtually guarantees that the postal corporation will suffer funding problems.
Katayama unveiled these latest estimates during a meeting of the postal affairs committee of the House of Representatives.
The postal corporation will take over the three state-run postal services -- mail delivery, postal savings and "kampo" life insurance -- under one of four postal deregulation bills before the Diet.
The new corporation would be required to return a portion of any increase in its reserves after four years, although this time-frame could be pushed back in light of the funding situation.