(ゆうびん)

mail / postal service

(はいたつ)

delivery

(かかる)

to take (time/money), cost

(にっすう)

number of days

(ふえる)

to increase; to grow

(てがみ)

letter (correspondence)

(はがき)

postcard

(とどく)

to arrive; to reach; to be delivered

(いぜん)

before, previously

(ながい)

long

(にほんゆうびん)

Japan Post

(どようび)

Saturday

(やめる)

to stop; to quit

(へいじつ)

weekday

(とどける)

to deliver

(しくみ)

structure, system, mechanism

(かえる)

to change

(そのため)

therefore; for that reason

(きんようび)

Friday

(だす)

to serve, put out

(げつようび)

Monday

(いこう)

on or after, from ~ onward

(おおい)

many

(はいけい)

background

(はたらく)

to work

(ひと)

person / people

(ふそく)

shortage; insufficiency

(はいたついん)

delivery worker

(かず)

number, count

(ねんねん)

year by year / annually

(へる)

to decrease / to diminish

(ちょうじかんろうどう)

long working hours

(もんだい)

problem

(いっぽう)

on the other hand / meanwhile

(いんたーねっと)

Internet

(ふきゅう)

spread, widespread adoption

(おおきい)

big; large

(はんたい)

opposition; against

(つうしんはんばい)

mail-order sales, online shopping

(にもつ)

luggage; package; cargo

(ゆうびんきょく)

post office

(ちからをいれる)

to put effort into; to focus energy on

(ほうしん)

policy, course of action

(りようしゃ)

user

(いそぐ)

to hurry, to rush

(しょるい)

documents; paperwork

(そくたつ)

express mail, special delivery

(でんしめーる)

email

(つかう)

to use

(よびかける)

to call out; to appeal

(せいかつ)

daily life; livelihood

(ひつよう)

necessary / needed

(れんらくしゅだん)

means of communication

(どう)

how / in what way

(まもる)

to protect

(これから)

from now on

(かだい)

issue, problem, challenge

until / as far as

Indicates an end point in space or time. Here it expresses how far the balls flew.

than / more than

Indicates comparison. Used to say prices rose on average 2.8% compared to last year.

to become (い-adjective)

Expresses a change of state for い-adjectives. Drop the final い and add くなる. Indicates something has changed or will change to a new state.

is doing, has been doing (ongoing state/action)

Expresses a continuing action or resulting state. Formed with て-form + いる. Can describe an action in progress or a state resulting from a past change.

nominalizer (the act of ~)

Turns a verb phrase into a noun. Here 話を聞くこと (the act of listening to a speech).

to become

Expresses a change of state; Kawai became the new commissioner of the Sports Agency.

by means of / through

Expresses the means by which something is achieved — through sport, everyone can live together.

to continue doing ...

Verb stem + 続ける expresses continuing an action. The て-form あげ続ける means 'continue giving'. A common compound verb pattern.

in response to ~; toward ~

Signals Israel's response to the international criticism mentioned previously.

to ask/urge that ~ (indirect request)

ように reports a request or instruction. 使うように呼びかけています means the post office is urging people to use express mail or email.

郵便の配達にかかる日数が増える

Postal delivery is taking more days

手紙やはがきが届くまでの日数が、以前より長くなっています。

The number of days it takes for letters and postcards to arrive has grown longer than before.

日本郵便は、土曜日の配達をやめて、平日に届ける仕組みに変えました。

Japan Post stopped Saturday delivery and switched to a system that delivers on weekdays.

そのため、金曜日に出した手紙が、月曜日以降に届くことも多くなりました。

As a result, letters posted on Friday now often do not arrive until Monday or later.

背景には、働く人の不足があります。

Behind this lies a shortage of workers.

配達員の数は年々減っていて、長時間労働も問題になっています。

The number of delivery staff is falling year by year, and long working hours have also become a problem.

一方で、インターネットの普及によって、手紙の数は大きく減りました。

Meanwhile, because of the spread of the internet, the number of letters has fallen sharply.

反対に、通信販売の荷物は増え続けています。

Conversely, parcels from mail-order shopping keep increasing.

郵便局は、荷物の配達に力を入れる方針です。

The post office's policy is to put its efforts into parcel delivery.

利用者に対しては、急ぐ書類は速達や電子メールを使うように呼びかけています。

It is calling on customers to use express mail or email for urgent documents.

生活に必要な連絡手段をどう守るかが、これからの課題です。

How to protect the means of communication that daily life depends on is the challenge going forward.