Last year, people in Japan exchanged some 2 billion New Year's greeting cards called nengajo (年賀状). As long as they're marked appropriately and posted in the specially marked mail slots between Dec. 15 and 25, they'll be delivered to friends, family and business associates nation-wide (by an army of holiday part-timers) on Jan. 1.
Technology has taken some of the work out of addressing, writing, stamping and mailing them in the last few years. Any number of Internet and keitai sites allow exchange of e-greetings by Web mail or mobile phone. Apparently, though, nothing beats flipping through that nice fresh stack of real cards, signed, sealed and delivered on the first day of the year. Now several services are preserving the personal paper touch while taking the work out of addressing them by sending real nengajo via virtual addresses. Even if you don't know your online friends' e-mail addresses — or even their real names — you can send them the cards.
The two main services offering this feature are Japan Post's WebPO and Net-nengajo. For either one, you select the cards and choose your message online, addressing the card to an e-mail address, social network profile name or Twitter handle. The service then tells the recipient a card is waiting and asks for a real-world name and address. This goes directly onto the card without ever being revealed to the original sender. Mixi has a similar nengajo system in place for exchanges among its own members.