Question About This Japan Cover

HI all

At first I thought this was another Marker Monkey cover, BUT then I saw that there are indeed some Japanese characters. I think this is simply a cancel they use for large envelopes...

But what about the stamps? Semi-postals from different years?

JD

Yes, Japanese roller canceller.
For Packets / Parcels.

The stamps look like lottery issues, I'll have a look in Sakura.

Your first stamp 80y+3y is Sc#2874 (2003) New Years Stamps

"lottery" stamps???? Inquiring minds want to know...

All these are New Years Stamps
I'll let you guess the others
Japanese art, takes some getting used to.

Hint: one is year of the boar.

Sheets of 2 stamps containing certain designs, were lottery prizes.
Consult Scott for issues.
text under Sc#2725 for instance

Here are the New Year's lottery prize stamps (otoshidama yûbin-kitte) from "my" Year of the Snake: Shôwa 40 = 1965. (I was actually born in 1966, but before Lunar New Year.) The repeated e-like symbol is the character for the zodiac sign of the Snake. As you can see, the souvenir sheets contained four stamps rather than two back then.

The lottery numbers also appear on New Year's postal cards, like the one below. Here's an article about the lottery, with the odds, prizes, etc. for 2020: https://bestlivingjapan.com/nengajyo/

Fascinating, always wondered about those.
Thanks Erilaz.

"A Kyoto man, who had no particular connection to the postal service, thought nengajo would be a good way to help people share their whereabouts and aid the country's recovery from its battered defeat. He had the idea of adding lottery numbers to the cards issued by the post office, which would win the recipient prizes. The system started in 1949 and continues today.

The first prize this year, for an estimated one in every one million new year's cards, is an e-money gift card worth ¥310,000. The winning numbers will be announced on January 17. There is a range of smaller prizes, too, for cards' whose final two, or four digits, for example, are drawn. Take the winning card to a post office to redeem your prize."

I am still a bit confused... do these stamps FUND the "lottery", or are they things that are WON?

Japan issues New Year's stamps of basically three kinds.

1. There are the regular New Year's stamps, which people buy to put on New Year's cards. They're issued for the normal letter rate and the normal postcard rate.

2. Then there are the semi-postals, like those in your post, which have similar designs but are larger, to accommodate the added lottery number and info about prize-winning. They also have a surcharge (3 yen in your examples) to support the lottery. People buy these to put them on New Year's cards, too, but in this case the recipient gets a chance to win one of the lottery prizes.

3. Then there are the "otoshidama" (New Year's gift) souvenir sheets, like the 1965 one I posted. These are lottery prizes. I don't think people can just buy them at the post office.

Instead of buying stamps to put on their own cards, people can buy New Year's postal cards to send to friends and family, like my Peanuts card. (Apparently they now have print-at-home versions, too.) These also have a lottery number on them, giving the recipient a chance to win a prize.

Again,Erilaz,
thanks for the explanations. Saved.

erilaz - AHA! NOW I understand!! New Year's is a big deal over there, eh? :-)

If I'm reading my Scott correctly, the first New Year's stamp was issued in 1935.

Scott is correct Bobby.
Big Deal ? 700 million would suggest so

https://savvytokyo.com/need-know-ja...years-cards/