Internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama said Tuesday his ministry has appraised Japan Post Holdings Co.'s 79 facilities, including the Kampo no Yado nationwide resort inn network, at about ¥25 billion, around 1.9 times more than the Japan Post appraisal.

Hatoyama said Japan Post's appraisal of ¥13.3 billion as of late August was too low and the ministry's appraisal is "evidence" to underpin the unfairness of a deal to sell the facilities to leasing company Orix Corp for ¥10.9 billion.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry made the appraisal that as of March 1, 21 facilities, including the profitable Kampo no Yado inns and related housing facilities in the Tokyo metropolitan area, are worth ¥14.8 billion.

The ministry estimated the appraisal of the 58 other facilities, including money-losing Kampo no Yado inns, on the basis of their differences in appraisal on profitable facilities.

But the latest ministry evaluation is not necessarily comparable with the one by Japan Post, because the ministry made the appraisal on the premise that the inns' current employment will not be taken over and expenses will be curtailed to about 80 percent of the present level.

The ministry's appraisal should not be considered criteria for Japan Post's sales of facilities, Hatoyama said.

In January, Hatoyama voiced opposition to the deal to Orix, saying it "may be seen as a race whose result has already been decided" because Orix Chairman Yoshihiko Miyauchi was involved in mapping out the government's plan to privatize the postal services.