Up to 2.3 million depositors have exceeded the 10 million yen ceiling on postal savings to the tune of nearly 2.5 trillion yen, Japan Post sources said Wednesday.
The revelation could open Japan Post to criticism from commercial banks at a time when the divisive postal privatization bills are being debated in the Diet, analysts said. Depositors are attracted to postal savings accounts because they offer higher interest rates than regular bank accounts.
In February 2004, Japan Post estimated that 790,000 depositors had gone over the ceiling with total excess savings of 2.097 trillion yen.
But the latest check, which covers all postal savings accounts, clearly showed that about 410,000 depositors were going over the ceiling with excess savings of 1.37 trillion yen.
About 1.89 million other depositors are suspected of exceeding the ceiling by a total of 1.120 trillion yen, the sources said.