A revision to the postal law was enacted Friday, allowing Japan Post Co. to scrap Saturday and next-day deliveries of ordinary mail as early as autumn next year. The bill to amend the postal law was approved at a plenary session of the House of Councilors. The move reflects a decline in mail volumes and is also aimed at improving post office personnel's work conditions. The government had delayed the submission of the bill to the Diet in order to allow the Japan Post Holdings Co. group to prioritize dealing with the issue of irregularities in sales of Kampo postal life insurance products at post offices. The revised law will reduce the frequency of general mail deliveries from at least six days a week to at least five days a week.

A government panel decided Tuesday to end Saturday delivery for standard mail to deal with a labor shortage at Japan Post Co. and a drop in demand due to increased use of the internet. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry accepted the proposal from the panel and will seek a law amendment at an extraordinary Diet session this fall. Delivery on Saturday could be terminated possibly next year and it will be available only on weekdays. The panel also proposed that delivery for standard mail the day after posting be ended. Japan Post, a unit of Japan Post Holdings Co., has been calling for a review to trim standard mail service hours to five days a week from the current six days to address the workforce shortage.

Japan Post Co. has said that it will start test deliveries using a drone between post offices in Fukushima Prefecture. The transport ministry on Friday approved an application by the company for flying a drone without an operator watching the airborne device or an assistant who monitors its movements. In past test flights, operators flew drones with assistants checking the movements of the devices by eye. This time, flights will be conducted without such an assistant for the first time. The mail delivery arm of Japan Post Holdings Co. is expected to start the test flights early next month.

Japan Post Co. will conduct a trial of self-driving delivery cars on public roads in Tokyo next week, with an aim of introducing a fleet of the vehicles by 2020 to cope with driver shortages. Ahead of the trial, the company held a ceremony at its headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday and demonstrated the self-driving vehicle's capabilities on a nearby public road. Japan Post President Kunio Yokoyama said at the ceremony that the company has a "social responsibility" to offer delivery services in a sustainable manner. "The introduction of self-driving vehicles is a pressing agenda," he said. In the trial, an autonomous vehicle will depart from the company's headquarters in the central Tokyo district of Kasumigaseki and drive about 2 kilometers to a post office in the Ginza neighborhood, stopping at another post office en route.

Japan Post Co. said Monday it is considering using drones to move packages between post offices, possibly from next year, due to an increasing shortage of delivery workers. The envisioned project by the mail and package delivery unit of state-owned Japan Post Holdings Co. comes in the wake of e-commerce operator Rakuten Inc. and major parcel delivery provider Yamato Holdings Co. testing drone deliveries, but safety concerns remain about the new delivery method. Japan Post is considering using drones in step with the government's pro-growth plan under which drone use is eyed for parcel delivery in mountainous regions in 2018 and in urban areas in the 2020s. "We are aiming to fly drones between post offices in mountainous areas and remote islands," Japan Post Executive Vice President Seiki Fukuda said at a news conference Monday. In order for drone delivery to be put to practical use, Fukuda said, "how far regulations will be loosened" will be important.