Japan Post Bank

Organizational history

The postal savings system in Japan was started in 1875 by Maejima Hisoka, who is known as "the father of the Japanese postal system." In 1871, four years before he founded the postal system, Maejima had spent time observing the postal system of the United Kingdom and was impressed by its offering of postal savings services. Adoption by the public was rapid, with 10,000 customers within the first three years of operation.

After World War II, in 1949 the postal savings system was relaunched under the newly formed Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. As the economy recovered, postal savings grew to tremendous sums, reaching ¥1 trillion in 1960 and ¥100 trillion in 1985. In 2001, the postal savings system came under the jurisdiction of the Postal Services Agency, which soon reorganized into Japan Post in 2003.

Through all these organizational changes, the postal savings services were managed by a single government-owned company that also handled significant postal and insurance divisions. In 2006, Japan Post Holdings was founded as a government-owned holding company in preparation for the division of these responsibilities into separate companies with partial private ownership, a reorganization which occurred on 1 October 2007. On 3 November 2015, the shares of Japan Post Bank Company debuted for the first time on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with about 10% of shares listed.

Founding through World War II

Postal savings were first deposited at Dai-Ichi National Bank, a private bank of issue, but starting in 1878 deposits were made to Ministry of Finance, which became the exclusive destination for deposits in 1884.