Japanese people, who never miss a chance to be photographed, were lining up yesterday to get their picture on a postage stamp.
Vanity stamps that feature personal photographs went on sale for the first time in Japan as part of an international postage stamp exhibition.
The customer's photo is taken with a digital camera and then printed on stamp sheets, a process that takes about five minutes.
Sold in a sheet of 10 stamps for ?1,100 (US$8.80) -- little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo -- each stamp features a different scene from a traditional ukiyo-e Japanese print along with the photo.
The stamps can be used as normal to mail a letter, and postal officials hope they will help promote interest in letter-writing in the Internet age.
"Certainly e-mail is a useful method of communication, but letters are fun in a different way," said Hatsumi Shimizu, an official in the Posts Ministry. "We want to show young people that letters can be fun too."
While similar stamp sheets debuted in Australia in 1999 and are now sold in some 12 nations and territories, Japan's fondness for commemorative photos, and the photo stickers known as "Print Club," is likely to make the stamps especially popular here.
Indeed, officials had prepared 1,000 sheets but they were sold out in less than 30 minutes.
"We left home at four in the morning and got here at six," said Misao Itaya, who posed with his young children for the photo. "I want to use this when I send pictures of the kids to my relatives."
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