Japan's 'nengajo' New Year card tradition losing its charm

The time-honored Japanese tradition of sending "nengajo" New Year cards is fading fast, with modern-day Japanese too busy as the year comes to a close and happy to rely on technology to send festive greetings.

And while some admit that it is slightly sad to see a staple of the season disappearing, most just shrug.

The sending of decorative "nengajo" has been on a steady decline for several decades, falling from a peak of nearly 4.5 billion cards being issued in 2004 to a mere 1.07 billion in 2025. When the figures are released for 2026, they are expected to show that the decline has continued.

"This is the first year that I never sent any 'nengajo' at all," said Sumie Kawakami, an academic who lives in Yamanashi Prefecture in central Japan.

"I have been slowly weaning myself off sending cards every year, but this is the first time that I have sent none," she told DW. "I used to conscientiously write and send 200 every year, to colleagues, friends and family, but times have changed."

Kawakami said she felt the obligation to send so many cards — even to the most distant of contacts — became almost overwhelming at the start of every December. And that was only exacerbated on January 1, the day that cards are delivered, when she found that she had inevitably forgotten to send a card to someone.

And while tradition dictates that in such an emergency it is still socially acceptable to quickly dash one off and get it in the post so it arrives within the next day or so, it is still something of a faux pas.

"Instead of 'nengajo,' this year I wrote a few letters to the people closest to me, sent Christmas cards to friends overseas and then either called or sent messages over social media to everyone else," Kawakami said, adding that while Japanese were expected to send cards to all their work colleagues in years gone by, that is no longer the case as people tend to keep their work and personal lives more separate today.

"In a way, I suppose it is a little bit sad to lose this tradition, but our lives have completely changed from when 'nengajo' were first sent," she said.

"Nengajo" can be traced back to the Heian period (794-1192), when the aristocratic classes would send greetings to one another to mark the lunar new year. The trend caught on among the upper classes and then the rest of society, before really taking off during the Meiji era (1868-1912) with the creation of a modern postal system.

Early versions were written by hand and incorporated elaborate designs of the animal of the year according to the Chinese zodiac. The year 2026 is the year of the horse, which will be followed by the goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, the pig, the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon and the snake.

Interest soared with the arrival of home computers and printers, which allowed people to create their own designs, often including personal photos and messages. And while technology encouraged the popularity of "nengajo" then, it is killing the tradition today.

"I used to send about 100 every year just a few years ago, but I've completely stopped because all the people I wanted to send them to are already in my mobile phone," said Kiyoko Date, who works for a major multinational corporation in Yokohama.

"It is far easier and quicker to send an electronic message rather than going to all the trouble of writing and sending individual cards to everyone I know," she said.

There are other barriers, Date pointed out. "When I first joined my company 20 years ago, we all used to send each other cards and there was a database of everyone's home address that we could access," she said.

"But that has changed and because of privacy concerns, that database is no longer accessible. People keep their private information to themselves a lot more and, in my office, nobody sends each other cards anymore."

Yet another factor is the rising cost at a time when many Japanese do not have a huge amount of spare cash. The price of a single card has risen this year from 63 yen (€0.34, $0.4) to 85 yen.

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Even among those who have decided to stop sending cards, the sense of politeness and respect holds true. This year has seen the emergence of "nengajo-jimai," in which people inform the recipient that this will be the last year that they carry on the tradition and thank them for being a valued friend or colleague.

"Yes, it is a little sad for me to not send cards and I am sure I will miss not receiving them on New Year's Day, but I am always so busy as the end of the year comes around and writing cards was always a bit of a last-minute rush," said Tomoko Hosokawa, a housewife from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

"I do make an effort to send messages via social media and that's how everyone I know receives them now," she said. "Even my husband, who had to send hundreds of cards every year to business contacts and suppliers, hardly sends any now. It is just not as important even in the business world anymore."