New Year's Day in 2023 is coming as scheduled. Walking on the streets of major cities in Japan, "New Year's cards" can be seen everywhere adorning the windows of major shopping malls, and Japanese stamps will also celebrate the 152nd anniversary of their birth. Although the stamp is only a voucher for the postage, but it is integrated with the letter and conveys the sender's mood. Its beautiful patterns and rich changes are its charm.
In this age of social media, will there still be a market for "New Year's cards" delivered through the postal system? Why are Japanese people still keen on sending paper New Year's cards every New Year?
Pay attention to paper
Sending New Year's cards has long been known as a Japanese custom. It is said that since the Heian period, Japan has had the habit of presenting articles to each other as New Year's greetings.
Survey results show that 70% of Japanese New Year card users are individuals and 30% are companies. People usually send New Year's cards before New Year's Day, but it is also possible to send New Year's cards after New Year's Day, but certain etiquette must be observed. If you send a New Year's card after New Year's Day, or reply after January 7, don't write "Happy New Year" but "Winter Greetings". According to the situation in 2023, winter greetings can be sent until February 4th, the beginning of spring. After the beginning of spring, it is usually sent as a "visiting a sick person in the remaining cold".
In Japan, 70% of New Year's card users are individuals, and 30% are companies.
The main reasons why people send New Year's cards include "I want to greet someone I can't usually contact and check their situation", "I want to pay more attention to the communication with relatives and friends", "I usually use text messages, so I want to use postcards during the New Year" wait. In the Edo period, due to the development of the "Hipyaku" transportation system, "New Year's cards" began to spread among ordinary people.
Japan Modern Post was founded in 1871, operating postal services between Tokyo and Osaka. In 1873, Japan postal postcards appeared, and in 1900, privately produced postcards were officially recognized, all of which promoted the popularity and dissemination of New Year's cards. On December 1, 1949, on the basis of the "Law Concerning New Year's Postcards Selling Red Envelopes", the New Year's postcard with lottery was born, behind which is a spirit of social welfare.
On January 1, 2023, Tokyo, Japan, the Nihonbashi Post Office held a New Year's card delivery and departure ceremony
In the immediate post-World War II era, when communication was cut off, New Year's cards helped people get to know each other. The authorities added lucky money to New Year's cards in the form of lottery to encourage more people to donate, which made the gift of New Year's cards a kind of social welfare. The form of lottery and New Year's money makes the exchange of New Year's cards more fun, and also creates the world's first mail system with lottery.
In 2003, Japan's paper New Year's cards reached their peak, with a circulation of more than 4.46 billion. According to traditional customs, New Year's cards are generally received on New Year's Day, and to ensure that so many New Year's cards are sent and signed for accurately within one day, a powerful postal system is required behind it.
Behind the timely delivery
For example, to ensure that 880 million New Year's cards are delivered before 8:00 am on New Year's Day in 2023, 5,000 people will be required to work 24 hours a day. in the manufactured box.
As the birthplace of Japan Post, Tokyo Nihonbashi Post Office also uses "sorting robots" for grid sorting and "delivery robots" for efficient delivery.
Japan also has a New Year's card delivery departure ceremony, such as the "Departure Ceremony" held at the Miyazaki Central Post Office in Miyazaki City on New Year's Day in 2023: In order to send 1.63 million packages to the city, 141 couriers rode motorcycles after 7:00 am The car set off together. The postal motorcycle full of letters crossed the red line and sent letters with blessings to thousands of households.
At the Nihonbashi Post Office, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Matsumoto also attended the departure ceremony for the distribution of New Year's cards this year. He claimed: "The New Year's card culture in Japan has a long history. In the era of the epidemic, many people began to try to regain this memory, re-feel the warmth of the New Year's card, and send a sincere New Year greeting to relatives and friends who cannot meet in the distance. .”
In recent years, the number of people sending New Year’s cards has continued to decline as more people send New Year’s greetings via email and social media. In the past 20 years, the circulation of New Year's cards has shown a continuous downward trend since its peak, and has decreased to nearly 1/3. In order to save money, more and more companies and shops have canceled the promotion of New Year's cards. BIGLOBE’s “Awareness Survey on Year-End and New Year Pass Laws” published in December 2022 showed that nearly half of people aged 20 to 50 answered “no New Year’s cards”. Among those in their 20s, 52.8% did not give them away.
Smart New Year's cards provide various templates for the public
Poster promoting the first New Year's postcard lottery in 1949
The contradiction between digitization and paper
According to the questionnaire survey report conducted with 500 printer owners, we can understand some trends of New Year's cards.
According to the data, 439 people, accounting for 87.8%, intend to send greeting cards for 2023 (Year of the Rabbit). 75% of people sent more than 20 copies, and 1 in 5 people sent more than 100 copies. Many people make effective use of the printers they own to make New Year's cards.
In addition, 85.3% of people use computers to make New Year's cards by themselves. Those who use the printer will make original designs on the computer, and will use the address book in the computer to write the recipient's name. It can be seen that the rate of sending New Year's cards is higher for those who own printers.
The custom of greeting cards is not static. For example, "social media + postcard communication" has been favored by many young people. Among the younger generation, more and more people are starting to greet through LINE. Japan Post began to consider combining the convenience of LINE delivery with the warmth of paper New Year's cards, and created a "smart New Year's card." It is made by LINE, and can be sent to LINE for design and then sent directly by post, realizing the organic combination of convenience of sending and warmth of paper.
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