Japanese Postage Stamps Book From The "Ministry Of Posts & Telecom"

I just purchased this great looking book of Japanese stamps published by the "Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications".

It is complete with all unused, hinged stamps except for one (Scott # 939, CV $0.30)
(corrected Scott# from original post)

I really like the book paper and quality and display (and of course the stamps)

I am not familiar with this type of book, nor am I very verse in Japanese stamps yet, but am very interested.
And a good value, I paid $6 U.S.

Hmmm an interesting item, but I'm 99% certain this was not produced in Japan.
The Japanese (and least of all the postal system, which I interact with, as well as the Japan Philatelic Society) produce NOTHING in English. It's always in Japanese.
Not to mention, I'm not aware of a "Ministry of Ports and Telecommunications" in Japan either. The two are not linked in anyway.
Is there any info on the cover page, or a title page that provides any detail around the printing and publishing body?
Also, Japanese stamps go back to 1871.
When you say "Complete" what years does this cover?
I'm glad you only paid $6 for this. It looks like the kind of "collectable" items that frequently get created from very common, low value stamps (25 cents or so each), on "high quality" stock, and then sold for $50 or more as a "collectors item", which, philatelic is generally not much collectable. For what you paid, it's fine. And if you like it that's fine too, but it's not authentic in terms of being issued by any Japanese organization.

EDIT: The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is the "telecommunications" authority in Japan. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is responsible for ports... so this looks totally bogus to me.

Thank you for the reply and questions ClassicPhilatelist.
Regarding the book, I had my doubts too since it was in English but I liked the quality of the book, paper, etc. Nice display.
There are no other markings, publisher or anything else.
(maybe I should change the title of the post to "Book entitled ... Japanese stamps...)

And from just a straight CV value of the stamps, I paid around 10-12% so I think I am fine there.

And to more specific about the stamps, all are modern; starting in 1964 and ending in 1967. Looks like mostly all commemoratives.
5-6 stamps per page, 20 pages - so about 120 stamps.

I like it, especially the paper pages, it has a look of quality.
Always a quandry, with these though, how does one incorporate it into a collection, without removing the stamps? awkward.

I would research further, it may be genuine.
I am thinking perhaps "gift" to visiting members of a company etc etc.
I have a 1940 Catalogue produced by the Tourist Bureau, all in English.

Great to see your reply Rod! and so good to see your other example. You are a wealth of knowledge.
I wonder if Unechan (Hironobu) will provide any additional insights?

Indeed
He is one of our "go to" members, let's hope he can offer some light, either way.
Perhaps send him an email.

Good idea Rod. Done !

It does not say Ports. It says Posts.

My miss read on that. I'm working on a tiny laptop screen at super-hi res while traveling at the moment.

From 1946 to 2001 there was a Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Japan. So that does fit. But, the two didn't merge until 1982, so that suggests this item had to be made somewhere between 1982 and 2001.
Unfortunately I'm not in Tokyo at the moment, and won't be back until 28th March. After that I can ask around, I need to make a trip out to the Postal museum around then anyway.
But... there is still the matter of being in English. VERY few things today are produced in English. In 1982, it would be almost unheard of. Japan is very stubborn in keeping only to Japanese. There is a big public debate about how this is holding the country back compared to places like China and Vietnam, that have embraced English as an enable to global business. Even in places like Tokyo, it can still be near impossible to find English speakers...

Rod, interesting... now the Tourism Bureau issuance makes more sense. The Spring JPS stamp expo is coming 29th April. I can take a photo of the book out then, and see if anyone knows anything about it.

Hi all,

Apologies for the belated reply because I�fve been on the road recently...

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications have been issuing annual stamp book officially (I believe this has been discontinued since the institutional change to Japanese Post). Although I couldn�ft find concrete evidence on the English version, this nice example shown in this thread looks totally geniuine for me !

I shall post some images of the Japanese version (found on Web) later this evening.

- Hironobu

Thank you Hironobu. As usual, I should have done some more research myself and used Google more effectively.
I see that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications published similar books into the 1990s.
Some with stamps and some just about stamps.

There is an old thread on this topic on stamp boards too:
https://www.stampboards.com/viewtop...f=10&t=30695

Hi Turtle2600 and all,

The difficulty here is that there seems to be no clear record on the issuance of these stamp books... Judging from evidences (such as examples shown below) they have been issued annually in the 90's (at least), but the earlier issues (such as your example) may cover multiple years. It is also not clear until when the english version has been issued (in later issues, descriptions of the stamps are given in Japanese and English).

These examples are mostly taken from Yahoo auction (Japan).





Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Hironobu

Thanks Hironobu,
your posts are always valuable.

It's strange that these look nothing like the one that the Turtle2900 posted though. They are hard bound, with covers, where his issue appears to be a different binding with padded cover. Maybe it's from earlier 1960's issues, and they changed in the 90's.
Will look into it.

It is not uncommon for me to find these in bulk lots.