January 30, 2015 – Thank you for using Yamato Transport.
On January 22nd we announced that we would discontinue the Kuroneko Mail-Bin service at the end of March. Alternatively to respond the costumer needs, we will be expanding our TA-Q-BIN service by adding new service for “small parcels” starting from April 1st. We sincerely apologize for this sudden announcement.
We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused. Based on the type of products that you are currently kindly shipping with us, we would like to provide guidance to you regarding shifting to the new services. We humbly request for your continued patronage of Yamato Transport in the future.
Kuroneko Mail-Bin is widely used by many customers, sending about 2.1 billion packages per year, and has grown to handle around 40% of Japan’s mail deliveries. We would like to thank our customers again for your continued business, and together with this announcement, describe two decisions that we have made.
Firstly we would like to describe the background behind our discontinuation of the Kuroneko Mail-Bin service.
In Japan, a letter is defined legally as “Confidential documents” and can be sent through the post, but a Mail-Bin delivery is considered a parcel. If a letter or documents considered as “Confidential documents” was sent by Mail-bin, both the sender and delivery company can be penalized. While it is only permissible to send “booklets and documents” by Mail-Bin, the distinction between these items and “Confidential documents” is ambiguous, and the inquiry counter at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications often does not provide timely answers to queries regarding whether a given item should be classified as a “Confidential documents” or not. Under such circumstances, based on our management philosophy and social responsibility, we can no longer ignore the risk that customers may unknowingly send “Confidential documents” using the Kuroneko Mail-Bin service and be in breach of the law, and thus we have decided to discontinue the Mail-Bin service from the end of March.
Read more at www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp