TOKYO, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Japan Post Holdings Co.'s new president on Monday vowed to regain the public's trust in the group following a protracted scandal involving illegitimate sales of insurance products.
Hiroya Masuda, who now heads the group following the resignations of his predecessor and the heads of two of the group's subsidiaries to account for the scandal, called for more sincerity in the group's operations and regaining the public's trust by degrees.
"We are facing the biggest crisis since the foundation of the postal group," Masuda, 68, who assumed the top spot the same day, told executives, adding that all-out efforts would be made.
"We will eliminate our customers' disadvantages as soon as possible. We must regain trust step by step," the former internal affairs and communications minister said.
Masuda's remarks followed the now former Japan Post Holdings President Masatsugu Nagato, ex-Japan Post President Kunio Yokoyama, and previous Japan Post Insurance President Mitsuhiko Uehira resigning Sunday to take responsibility for the scandal.
Uehira was replaced by his former deputy Tetsuya Senda and Kazuhide Kinugawa assumed the top spot at Japan Post on Monday.
On December 27, Japan Post Insurance Co. and Japan Post Co. were ordered by the the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to suspend sales of insurance products for three months from Jan. 1 and business improvement orders were slapped on all three companies.
The FSA's probe revealed that salespeople had given improper explanations to customers which saw a huge number of them pay unnecessary premiums for overlapping contracts, while some customers were also left uninsured for periods of time between contracts.
"The companies' corporate atmosphere lacked the awareness of customer protection," the FSA said of the conduct of the state-backed group.
An internal probe has revealed that 12,836 cases of policy sales are suspected of having broken the law or company rules, as of Dec. 15.
Of these, 670 cases have already been determined to have been in violation of current laws or rules, with the probe finding that more than 70 percent of customers duped by the improper sales were aged 60 or over.
The investigation also revealed that the illegitimate sales practices were propelled by unreasonable sales targets and the hopes of achieving bonuses, as well as by salespeople not wanting to cause concern to their bosses.
The Japan Post group was privatized in 2007 and is still 57 percent owned by the government.
