Photo/Illutration A customer drops a letter in a mailbox outside a post office that reopened in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 7, 13 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Shoko Rikimaru)

“Zenryaku gomenkudasai,” a classic letter salutation in Japanese, translates as “Pardon me for dispensing with the preliminaries.”

Whenever a reader of this column sends me a letter that starts like that, it makes me sit up straight.

The sender’s intent could be anything—encouragement, complaint, suggestion, whatever. But almost invariably, it would be written by hand, which gives the letter a much warmer feel than any email and makes it a pleasure to read.

And sometimes, the missive would come as a cute postcard or in an envelope affixed with rare postage stamps.

I was reading just such a letter on Oct. 3 when I noticed that the stamp bore a three-digit number.

That’s right, the price of a stamp for a standard-size letter, weighing less than 25 grams, went up from 84 yen to 110 yen (57 cents to 75 cents) on Oct. 1. Also, the price of a standard postcard rose from 63 yen to 85 yen.

This is said to be the first sweeping price hike in 30 years, excluding the impact of the additional consumption tax.

The volume of postal items has shrunk by about half over the last two decades, while labor and fuel costs have grown. I believe the postage hike couldn’t be helped but it’s still substantial.

I suppose I wasn’t really tuned into this situation because traditional letter writing has been overtaken, so to speak, by email and social media.

In 1937, when “snail mail” was the mainstream means of written communication, the now-defunct Ministry of Communications’ Bureau of Postal Affairs published a book titled “Yubin Ryokin Neage Mondai to Yoron” (literally, postage hike issue and public opinion).

It describes the strong reaction of public opinion against the first major postage hike in 38 years, which brought the price of a standard postcard from 1.5 sen (sen is an old currency unit) to 2 sen.

What draws one’s attention is the “atmosphere of an emergency” that was being felt in society at the time. Japan was on course for military expansion, having experienced the so-called 2.26 incident a year before—an attempted coup by young officers of the Imperial Japanese Army.

The finance minister demanded that some of the extra revenue from the postage hike be transferred to the general account, and was met with stiff resistance from the postal authorities who wanted to use the money to improve the working conditions of postal workers.

Such times are long gone. Even though the nation’s postal business has been privatized, the shrinking customer base will probably lead to further price hikes.

Even so, I intend to keep trying harder to write better, hoping my readers will kindly pick up a pen and write to me.

Yours faithfully.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 4

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.