By Ines Keane
A card posted on 20 December and a card posted on the 24th can land on the same doormat, at the same hour, on the same morning. That is the odd and rather lovely rule of the nengajo, the Japanese New Year card. Post offices hold the cards back and release them together on 1 January. Four sources describe how it works, and they differ more on the history than on the habit.
The rule that makes it work
The Japan Forum, a foundation newsletter, says nengajo are handled separately from ordinary mail, sorted, and held at the local post office until 1 January. Senders are asked to split them into three bundles: the city, the wider prefecture or metropolis, and everywhere else. A card carries a “nenga” mark, meaning it is to be delivered on or after the first of the year. Delivery, the newsletter says, happens on the morning of 1 January, with extra part-time staff hired to cope.
A travel site adds that cards are delivered together on that morning. A news-magazine article, nippon.com, says workers at more than 20,000 post offices hold an early-morning ceremony before setting out.
When to post
Here the sources agree, with a slight wobble. Nippon.com says that to arrive on 1 January, cards must be posted between 15 and 25 December. The Japan Forum says posting began on 15 December in the year it describes and that post offices encouraged senders to mail by 24 December. The travel site gives no deadline. Our reading: the window opens in mid-December and closes just before Christmas, and the safest habit is to post at the start of it. Check the current notice from Japan Post, because dates are set each year and the Japan Forum text describes 1998.
If you receive a card from someone you did not write to, the Japan Forum says you may send a return card until 7 January. After that, it says, the card falls under a different greeting, kanchu mimai, a winter greeting. It also says nengajo are delivered as priority mail until 8 January.
What the card says
The travel site says the recipient’s address goes on the front and the message on the back, together with the zodiac animal of the year. It lists three stock phrases: a happy-new-year greeting, thanks for the past year’s kindness, and a request for goodwill in the coming year. Nippon.com describes a large New Year greeting followed by smaller lines of thanks and good wishes, and says adding a personal note about recent events is considered good manners.
The Japan Forum adds some conventions. Cards are dated by era name and by the word gantan, the morning of 1 January, rather than a written date. The suffix “sama” must follow the addressee’s name. And handwritten messages, it says, are considered more sincere than printed ones.
The lottery
Since 1949, according to both the Japan Forum and the travel site, official prepaid New Year postcards have carried a lottery number. The Japan Forum says the winning numbers were announced on 15 January in the year it covers, and that prizes could be claimed for several months. Nippon.com says the cards carry lottery numbers at the bottom, offering small prizes. We give no prize values; the prizes the sources list belong to particular years.
Who gets a card, and who does not
The travel site says recipients include superiors, colleagues, family, friends, former teachers and anyone who helped the sender during the year. It also says that since the 2000s many cards are computer-printed and show family photos, and that a card may announce a marriage, a birth or a move.
The other side of the custom is the mourning notice. Both the travel site and nippon.com say that a household that lost a family member sends a mourning postcard, mochu hagaki, so that others do not send New Year greetings. They differ on the timing: the travel site says November or December, and nippon.com says early December. It is a matter of grief and we say no more than the sources do.
How many
The numbers are old and large. The Japan Forum says each household sends an average of 100 cards, and that more than four billion lottery-numbered postcards were printed for 1999. The travel site says the peak was 2003, with more than 4.4 billion cards sold, and that sales have fallen as email and texts have grown; it says more than 3.2 billion were sold in 2016. Nippon.com also gives 2003 and 4.4 billion for the peak, and says the decline continues as people print their own cards or use online services. Japan Post’s online service, the travel site says, offers more than 1,000 templates and can reach people whose addresses the sender does not have.
Where it came from
This is where the sources part company.
- The travel site places the start in the Nara period (710 to 794), with courtesy visits, and says letters spread the custom in the Heian period.
- The Japan Forum says the custom dates back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).
- Nippon.com says it may date to the eighth century, but that no record shows who sent the first card or when.
- Old Tokyo, a historical-postcard blog, says that when the postal system was set up in 1871, people still sent greetings in envelopes, and that greetings by postcard began as early as 1875. The Japan Forum says the Meiji government began printing postcards in 1873. A law of 1907, the blog adds, allowed New Year cards to be dropped into public postboxes if the front was marked as a New Year greeting.
Nearly all of these can be true at once. The habit of greeting people at New Year is older than the postcard, and the postcard gave it a schedule. Our reading, no more.
Dates in order
- 710 to 794: possible first greetings, according to the travel site.
- 1871: postal system set up, according to Old Tokyo.
- 1873: government postcards, according to the Japan Forum.
- 1875: early New Year postcards, according to Old Tokyo.
- 1907: postbox law, according to Old Tokyo.
- 1949: lottery numbers, according to the Japan Forum and the travel site.
- 2003: peak sales, according to the travel site and nippon.com.
Side by side
Origin: Nara, Heian or “no record”, depending on the source. Postcard start: 1873 or 1875. Mourning notices: November or December, or early December. Everything else is consistent.
What kind of sources these are
A foundation newsletter from 1999; a travel-information site, which is promotional; a news magazine; and a historical-postcard blog. No museum, no postal-history body and no Japan Post page was read, so we do not state current dates, card types or rules.
What we left out
We left out postcard prices, prize lists, brand and shop names, and the stamp designs of particular years.
Quick answers
When should I post New Year cards in Japan? Nippon.com says between 15 and 25 December to arrive on 1 January. Check Japan Post’s notice for the current year.
When are nengajo delivered? According to the Japan Forum and the travel site, they are held at the post office and delivered together on the morning of 1 January.
What is a mourning postcard? According to a travel site and nippon.com, it is a card, mochu hagaki, that a bereaved household sends so that others do not send New Year greetings.
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