(ゆうびんぶつ)

mail, postal items

(とどく)

to arrive; to reach; to be delivered

(にっすう)

number of days

(のびる)

to be extended, to grow longer

(ゆうびんきょく)

post office

(てがみ)

letter (correspondence)

(はがき)

postcard

(いぜん)

before, previously

(ながい)

long

(にっぽんゆうびん)

Japan Post (the postal company)

(はたらく)

to work

(ふたん)

burden, bear (cost)

(へる)

to decrease / to diminish

(すうねんまえ)

several years ago

(どようび)

Saturday

(はいたつ)

delivery

(やめる)

to stop; to quit

(けっか)

result

(きんようび)

Friday

(だす)

to serve, put out

(げつようびいこう)

Monday or later (月曜日 Monday + 以降 from ~ onwards)

(めずらしい)

rare, unusual, uncommon

(はいけい)

background

(りょう)

Quantity; amount; volume

(いんたーねっと)

Internet

(れんらく)

contact, communication

(とる)

to take

(ふえる)

to increase; to grow

(はんぶん)

half

(ちかい)

near / close

(たくはいびん)

home delivery service; parcel delivery

(にもつ)

luggage; package; cargo

(つづける)

to continue

(ひとで)

manpower, workers

(まわす)

to turn, to rotate (something)

(ひつよう)

necessary / needed

(でる)

to come out; to occur

(りようしゃ)

user

(いそぐ)

to hurry, to rush

(しょるい)

documents; paperwork

(まにあう)

to make it in time

(こまる)

to be troubled; to be in difficulty

(はやい)

fast

(さーびす)

service

(あんない)

guide, information

(しくみ)

structure, system, mechanism

(みなおす)

to review, to reconsider

(ほうしん)

policy, course of action

until / as far as

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

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.

because of, due to

Indicates a reason or cause. More formal than から or ので. Can follow nouns (の + ため) or plain-form verbs/adjectives.

not ~ (negative i-adjective)

The polite negative of an い-adjective replaces い with くありません. 安くありません says the cost is 'not cheap'.

on the other hand

Introduces the opposing concern: 一方で、心配する声もある.

and (formal ～ている)

Formal/written form of ～ていて, connecting clauses. Here competition is becoming fierce, and... (激しくなっており).

because ~ / since ~

Causal connector. Because JA is buying at higher prices, store prices will also rise.

called/named ~

Used to introduce or name something. In this article, 「鳥貴族」という店 means 'a store called Torikizoku'.

want to ~

Verb stem + たい to express desire.

while doing ...

Verb stem + ながら indicates doing two things simultaneously. The action before ながら is the secondary action; the main action follows.

to go on doing / continue to (from now)

In '増えていく' – 'will continue to increase (into the future)'. Indicates continuing trend going forward.

郵便物が届くまでの日数が延びる

The number of days it takes for mail to arrive is getting longer

郵便局が手紙やはがきを届けるまでの日数が、以前より長くなっている。

The number of days the post office takes to deliver letters and postcards has become longer than before.

日本郵便は、働く人の負担を減らすため、数年前に土曜日の配達をやめた。

To reduce the burden on its workers, Japan Post stopped Saturday delivery several years ago.

その結果、金曜日に出した手紙が、月曜日以降に届くことも珍しくない。

As a result, it is not unusual for a letter posted on Friday to arrive only on Monday or later.

背景には、手紙の量が大きく減ったことがある。

Behind this lies the fact that the volume of letters has fallen sharply.

インターネットで連絡を取る人が増え、郵便物の数はこの二十年で半分近くになった。

More people keep in touch over the internet, and the amount of mail has dropped to nearly half over the past twenty years.

一方で、宅配便の荷物は増え続けており、人手をそちらに回す必要も出ている。

Meanwhile, parcel-delivery packages keep increasing, and a need to shift workers over to that side has also arisen.

利用者からは「急ぎの書類は間に合わないので困る」という声も出ている。

Users are also raising complaints such as, "Urgent documents don't get there in time, which is a problem."

日本郵便は、速く届けたい人向けのサービスを案内しながら、配達の仕組みを見直していく方針だ。

Japan Post says it will guide customers who want fast delivery to other services while reviewing how delivery works.