Year-End Greeting Cards (Nengajo)
Nengajo are Japan's New Year postcards, mailed in December to arrive on the morning of January 1.1 For long-tenure residents they are one of the cheapest friendship signals available: a short greeting, a zodiac illustration, and a stamp's worth of postage to everyone who mattered that year.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Japan Post site.
Overview
A nengajo expresses gratitude for the past year and good wishes for the coming one. Senders include family members living apart, friends, colleagues, teachers, and business contacts, and the exchange runs in both directions.12
The custom descends from in-person New Year visits, known as 年始回り (nenshi-mawari, "New Year rounds"). Written cards replaced the visits as distances grew.13
No visa status, nationality, or registration gates participation. Anyone can buy the cards over the counter and post them, which makes this one of the few Japanese customs with no administrative entry cost.12
Timing: The December 15 to 25 Window
Japan Post opens New Year acceptance in mid-December. For the 2026 cycle, acceptance started on December 15, 2025, with cards held for delivery on January 1 (as of the 2025-12 cycle; confirm current figures with Japan Post).4
The guideline for January 1 arrival is to post by December 25 (as of the 2025-12 cycle).4 The binding constraint is the last mailbox collection on that date, not the calendar day alone, so an evening posting can miss the final pickup.3
Post boxes gain a dedicated nengajo slot from December 15 (as of the 2025-12 cycle). Cards posted before the start date travel as ordinary mail and arrive before the New Year, defeating the whole effect.23
The mailing flow runs as follows.
Cards on non-official stock need a red 年賀 marking to qualify for New Year handling. Writing it first, before the address, makes it impossible to forget.3
What Happens If You Miss December 25
Late cards still count as nengajo through the matsunochi period. The Kanto standard cutoff is January 7, while the Kansai standard is often January 15 (as of current custom).3 When in doubt, target January 7.
A card that will arrive after the window should switch format to 寒中見舞い (kanchū mimai, "midwinter greeting"). Drop the celebratory language, focus on the season and the recipient's wellbeing, and briefly note the lateness.3
What Goes on the Card
A card carries four parts in sequence: a greeting heading, a short body, a brief closing, and the date and sender information.3 The body thanks the recipient for the past year and states a wish for the new one, in two sentences at most.
Standard greetings include 明けましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetō gozaimasu, "Happy New Year") and 今年もよろしくお願いします (kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu, "I look forward to your continued goodwill this year"). A third workhorse is 旧年中はお世話になりました (kyūnenchū wa osewa ni narimashita, "Thank you for everything last year").21
Formal phrases of four or more kanji, such as 謹賀新年 (kinga shinnen, "respectful New Year congratulations"), suit superiors and elders, while one- or two-kanji phrases suit friends. Combining two greetings on one card repeats the same wish and reads as an error.3
Cards commonly feature the year's zodiac animal illustration; 2026 is the Year of the Horse. Auspicious motifs such as Mt. Fuji, sunrise imagery, cranes, or red and gold complete the design.2
Family photos, travel snapshots, and pet photos are popular, especially on print-shop cards.12 A short handwritten note in the margin carries the personal element a printed template cannot. One specific sentence about the relationship beats three vague ones.3
Keep celebratory language clean. Words touching on death, suffering, parting, or decline do not belong on the card.3
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 年賀状 | nengajō | New Year greeting card1 |
| 賀詞 | gashi | Celebratory greeting phrase at the top of the card3 |
| 年賀 | nenga | New Year greeting; the red marking that flags New Year mail43 |
Addressing and the Red Nenga Mark
Write the full address including the prefecture, plus the building and apartment number. Squeezing the address into a corner without margins looks careless on a formal card.3
Honorifics follow a fixed rule. Individuals take 様 (sama), never a bare name. Teachers and doctors take 先生 (sensei) with no 様 after it. Organizations and departments take 御中 (onchū) with no 様 after it, while a named individual at a company takes 様.3
Official Japan Post nenga postcards need no extra marking and are automatically treated as New Year mail (as of current handling).3 Standard or private postcards must carry a red handwritten 年賀 above the address, and private stock must also bear the correct stamp. Without the marking, the card travels as ordinary mail.3
Vertical layouts use kanji numerals and horizontal layouts use Western numerals. Do not mix the two styles on one card.3
Card Types and What They Cost
The October 2024 postage revision raised the postcard rate from 63 to 85 JPY, the first base-rate hike in 30 years apart from consumption-tax adjustments (as of 2024-10; confirm current figures with Japan Post).5 Any guide still quoting 63 JPY is out of date.
The 2026-use cards went on sale on October 30, 2025 through January 9, 2026 (as of the 2025-08-29 announcement).6
| Item | Amount | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blank nenga postcard, incl. lottery number | ¥85 | 2025-10-307 | The default choice |
| Inkjet-compatible blank | ¥85 | 2025-10-307 | For home printers |
| Inkjet photo blank | ¥95 | 2025-10-307 | Glossy finish for camera photos |
| Illustrated pre-printed, national and regional | ¥90 | 2025-10-307 | Design printed, just add addresses |
| Advertising-attached, regional only | ¥80 | 2025-10-307 | Cheapest official stock |
| International top-up on a nenga card | +¥15 (¥100 total) | Dec 20252 | Ordinary airmail, no Jan 1 hold |
All official stock carries the New Year lottery number. Only official stock does; standard and private postcards carry no lottery.3
Customization: Photo Shops and Online Printing
Blank stock sells at post offices, convenience stores, stationery shops, and supermarkets from November.12 From there, residents handwrite, home-print, or order prints.
Japan Post runs its own print service with design printing plus paid address printing and free drop-off posting of addressed cards (as of the 2026 service pages; confirm current figures with Japan Post).2 Camera shops and online print services take photo and bulk orders from autumn, with per-card print fees added on top of the card stock price.28
Bulk printers use uncut four-panel sheets, four cards at 340 JPY, through an advance wholesale window before general sale (as of the 2025-10-30 cycle).7 Individual residents never need this format; it exists so their print shop can deliver on time.
Reciprocity: The January 1 Batch and Thank-You Follow-Ups
Japan Post sorts and holds December nenga mail, then delivers it in a single batch on the morning of January 1. Seasonal staff join for an operation that still runs into the hundreds of millions of cards.21
The whole neighborhood's mailbox fills at once, which is the point. A stack of cards on the morning of January 1 is a visible census of who thought of the household.
If a card arrives from someone not on the sender's list, custom calls for a prompt thank-you reply acknowledging the greeting.28 A reply mailed inside the matsunochi window still counts as nengajo. After the window, the reply becomes kanchu mimai instead.23
International cards break the symmetry. A nenga card sent abroad needs the 15 JPY top-up stamp and travels by ordinary airmail with no January 1 hold, so timing depends on the destination postal system (as of Dec 2025).2
Mourning Exceptions: Mochu Hagaki
Do not send nengajo to a household that suffered a close-family death in the past year. That household announces its abstention with a 喪中はがき (mochū hagaki, "mourning notification card").1
The correct response to a mochu hagaki is to withhold nengajo and send kanchu mimai after matsunochi instead.3
Volumes: How Many Residents Send
A typical long-tenure resident sends 10 to 50 cards to friends and important business contacts. Deeply integrated residents with decades of accumulated relationships can exceed 100.
Business senders once mailed hundreds of cards to clients and suppliers from shared company address lists. That practice is fading as firms withhold address databases over privacy concerns.9
Former heavy senders describe mailing about 100 cards a year just a few years ago before quitting entirely.9 Lapsed senders who consider restarting say they would narrow the list to close friends, family, and supporters rather than rebuild the old bulk list.10
Is the Custom Declining
Issuance peaked at about 4.46 billion cards in 20033 and fell to about 1.07 billion for 2025 use, the 14th consecutive annual decline (as of Jan 2025 reporting).59 Initial 2026 issuance was about 0.75 billion, roughly 69.9 percent of the prior year's initial figure (as of the 2025-08-29 announcement).6
Cards delivered on January 1, 2025 numbered about 490.52 million, down 34 percent year on year and less than half the January 1, 2022 figure (as of 2025-01-01). Reporting attributes the drop to the 63 to 85 JPY postage hike plus ongoing digital substitution.5
A December 2024 survey of 1,003 adults found 62.6 percent did not plan to send nengajo; of the non-senders, 46.7 percent would use LINE and 44.0 percent would send nothing at all (as of 2024-12).11 Quitting even has a name: 年賀状じまい (nengajō-jimai, "retirement from the nengajo custom"), complete with farewell stamps for the final card.12
Yet the obituary may be premature. A December 2025 survey of 200 lapsed senders found nearly 80 percent had quit within five years, but more than half wanted to restart on a narrowed list after missing the physical ritual (as of 2025-12).10 Not one respondent reported feeling annoyed at receiving a card.10
Each official card carries a six-digit lottery number with results announced mid-January; the 2026-use draw offered top prizes on the order of 300,000 JPY in e-money or cash (as of Dec 2025).2 The lottery gives even the thinnest card a reason to be kept past breakfast.
Should Foreign Residents Participate
The minimum viable participation is cards to close friends and important contacts, not the full formal circuit. Nobody surveyed expects a foreign resident to maintain a hundred-name business list.
The cost is modest and the signal is strong. A physical card tells the recipient they survived the December triage, which a LINE sticker does not. No interviewed recipient in the lapsed-sender survey reported feeling annoyed at receiving one.10
Opting out is socially acceptable and increasingly common, as the quitting trend shows.9 The honest tradeoff is a missed friendship signal: skipping the custom costs nothing, but joining it buys a warmth that digital greetings have not replaced.109
Good to know
Do not send nengajo to a household in mourning
Check incoming mochu hagaki before finalizing the send list. A nengajo sent to a mourning household is the classic avoidable error, and the notification exists precisely to prevent it.1
Mailing before December 15 backfires
Cards posted before the acceptance start travel as ordinary mail and arrive before the New Year. The January 1 effect depends on posting inside the December 15 to 25 window, not merely before the deadline.23
Private postcards need a stamp plus the red marking
Custom stock without the red 年賀 marking or without the 85 JPY stamp travels as ordinary mail and misses the batch. Writing the marking first, before filling in the address, removes the most common failure point.3
Keep received cards until the lottery draw
Every official card carries a six-digit lottery number with results announced mid-January (as of Dec 2025). Discarding cards on arrival throws away the draw along with the greeting.2
See also
- Oshogatsu (January): The Year's Anchor
- Ochugen and Oseibo: Japan's Gift-Giving Calendar
- Neighbor Relations in Japan: Hikkoshi-Aisatsu Explained
- Long-Term Integration in Japan: Patience and the 5-Year Mark