TOKYO Japan's postal service agency plans to slash about 10 percent of its work force within five years as part of a drive to increase competitiveness and return to profitability, a Posts Ministry official said Tuesday.

The ministry official who declined to be named told AFP the scale of job cuts would be somewhere between the 10,000 and 14,000 mentioned in press reports.

"The number of job cuts will almost certainly be between these levels," the official said.