Japan Will Give Shopping Points For Buyers ToLOW Courier Work

Illustration. (Unsplash/Sticker Mule)

JAKARTA - The Japanese government plans to provide online shopping points to people who choose to receive packages delivered outside their homes to ease the burden on shipping staff, according to a policy package compiled in early October.

This move is part of an effort to address the impact of stricter overtime regulations on truck drivers next year. In addition, this policy aims to halve the percentage of resendable goods when people are not at home, from 12 percent at the moment to 6 percent in the fiscal year 2024 starting next April.

"Logistics is an important social infrastructure that supports people's lives and the economy," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a meeting with relevant ministers, to draw up steps to deal with reducing truck transportation capacity which is expected to occur on October 6, quoted from Kyodo News Oct. 14.

In this project, the government plans to give points to people who choose to receive packages outside the front door, in convenience stores, or with flexible delivery dates when they make orders online.

The government is working to determine the number of points to be offered and when to start the move.

On the other hand, the government is making arrangements to include subsidies for online shopping operators, in order to modify the system to provide points as well as funds to cover part of the points given in the additional budget, with the hope that the operator will continue the move voluntarily after the project ends.

The move comes as Japan faces the so-called "2024 problem," meaning the country's transport capacity is expected to decline as new regulations start in April limiting truck drivers' overtime to 960 hours per year.

Amid the chronic shortage of truck drivers due to poor aging and wages, the government estimates the country's logistics capacity will drop 34 percent in the 2030 fiscal year from the 2019 fiscal year.

In addition, to encourage shifts to other means of transportation, the government will also aim to double the number of goods transported by ship and train in the next 10 years, from 50 million tonnes and 18 million tonnes respectively in the fiscal year 2020.

"We will include measures that will have a direct impact on our stimulus measures and quickly implement them," said PM Kishida, referring to the government's economic package that will be drawn up at the end of this month.

The government intends to include the plan in an additional budget draft to fund economic packages, government officials said.