New year's postcard sales start in Japan | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News - NHKニュース

Post offices across Japan have started selling greeting cards for the coming New Year. Many feature images of sheep, the Chinese zodiac sign for 2027.

Sales began on Monday morning. Japan Post is initially issuing about 555 million cards, down 25 percent from last year.

It is also significantly fewer than the over 4.4 billion cards printed for 2004, when comparable records became available.

Wider use of social media is making the practice of sending greetings by mail less popular, but some still prefer it.

A man in his 60s says he hopes to continue sending his greetings on paper despite the changing times.

This year, people will get two extra days until December 27 to post their cards so they can be delivered on New Year's Day.

Japan Post hopes the move will encourage more to express their New Year's wishes by mail.

Post offices start accepting the cards from December 20.