Masaharu Ikuta (生田 正治, Ikuta Masaharu; January 19, 1935 – November 13, 2023) was a Japanese businessman from Kobe.
Ikuta graduated from Keio University in 1957. He was the CEO of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and served as the president of the Japan Postal Agency 2003 to March 2007. He was named the honorary consul to the Republic of Mauritius in 2002, and he was a member of the Trilateral Commission. Since 1998 he served as an independent non-executive director of Dah Sing Financial Holdings Ltd.
Japan Post (日本郵政公社, Nippon Yūsei Kōsha) was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It is the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and runs 24,700 post offices throughout Japan. One third of all Japanese government employees work for Japan Post. As of 2005, the President of the company was Masaharu Ikuta, formerly Chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.
Japan Post ran the world's largest postal savings system and is often said to be the largest holder of personal savings in the world: with ¥224 trillion ($2.1 trillion) of household assets in its yū-cho savings accounts, and ¥126 trillion ($1.2 trillion) of household assets in its kampo life insurance services; its holdings account for 25 percent of household assets in Japan. Japan Post also holds about ¥140 trillion (one fifth) of the Japanese national debt in the form of government bonds.