TOKYO -- Forty-one percent of people in Japan do not send out New Year's greeting cards, according to a Dec. 14 and 15 opinion poll by the Mainichi Shimbun.

This was followed by 26% of respondents who answered they "want to stop" sending out the greeting cards and 18% who "want to reduce the number" they send. Only 11% said they "want to continue sending them out as in the past."

Respondents who said they did not send out New Year's cards accounted for 64% of those aged 18 to 29, 53% of those in their 30s, 43% of those in their 40s, 42% of those in their 50s, 36% of those in their 60s, and 25% of those aged 70 and older. Among people in their 60s and younger, this was the most common response. For those aged 70 and older, the most popular answer was the desire to end the practice at 31%, followed by the preference to reduce the number of cards they send at 30%.

Although a simple comparison cannot be made due to different survey methods, when a similar question was asked in December 2022, 32% of respondents wanted to stop sending the cards, 27% already were not sending them and 24% wanted to reduce how many they send. This shows that over the past two years, there are fewer people who wish to stop the New Year's tradition, while significantly more have actually put an end to it.

This year, the price of plain New Year's cards increased from 63 yen to 85 yen (approx. 42 cents to 56 cents) in line with a postage rate hike in October, and Japan Post Co. reduced its initial issuance of the cards by 25.7% in volume from the previous year.

(Japanese original by Akira Murao, Political News Department)