Japanese New Year Greeting Cards

Sending New Year's postcards (nengajo) to relatives, friends, teachers, classmates, and co-workers is a very important custom in Japan. Nengajo should be delivered on January 1st. People are happy to receive and read those nengajo on New Year's Day. Japanese post offices accept New Year's cards from mid-December, and they deliver them on New Year's Day. It's a tradition for Japanese people to write New Year's cards during December. It's best to mail nengajo before Dec. 25th. Be sure to write 'nenga' under the stamp or use prepaid New Year's postcards issued by Japan Post Network so that postal workers can distinguish New Year cards from regular mail.

Prepaid New Year's postcards with lottery numbers are the kind most commonly used by Japanese people. The lottery's winning numbers are picked in mid-January. The prizes aren't money but are various household goods, such as electronics, stamps, and so on. Those prepaid postcards are basically plain, so people print photos or images, draw pictures, and write messages on their own.

Another important part of the etiquette is not to send a New Year's card to a family in mourning. You might receive postcards from people who are in mourning from mid. November, notifying you that they don't take and send New Year's greeting cards.

For those of you who don't have time to write New Year's cards, I've created some Japanese greeting ecards. The Chinese characters (kanji) and Japanese characters (hiragana) used in the postcards are all different expressions for saying "Happy New Year." Send your favorite cards to your Japanese friends online.
Send a Free Japanese New Year's e-card!

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