National Jan. 01, 2012 - 11:41AM JST ( 13 )

TOKYO —

Japan Post branches in the Tohoku area have been working overtime for the past few days to to try and make sure that this year’s New Year greeting cards (“nengajo”) reach their intended recipients in the disaster-hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

JP officials said that although post codes are read by computer and mail is partially sorted automatically nowadays, Japan Post has hired teams of temp workers in a bid to help sort the mail by name and group individuals into households.

The temp workers have also been asked to verify names and forwarding addresses, a task that has been made more difficult due to the large number of displaced people living in temporary accommodation in the Tohoku region, NHK reported.

Japan Post says that this year there is a higher than usual number of intended recipients whose current addresses are unknown. In such cases, a spokesperson said, mail is forwarded to a sorting office in another area, with a sticker attached in the hopes that the recipient’s current whereabouts can be located.

In many other cases, it is not known if the intended recipients are still alive, as thousands of people remain missing.

A section chief in Japan Post’s Wakabayashi branch in Sendai told reporters, “For all of those people who have suffered great losses this year and who are looking forward to hearing from their friends and loved ones, we want to do our best to pass on those messages.”

Many displaced families have also decided not to send any “nengajo.” One man, who had to leave Minamisoma in Fuksuhima Prefecture and relocate with his family, told AFP: “I have decided to skip sending cards this year. We are not in a mood to write, ‘A happy new year.’”

The bulk of “nengajo” are delivered on Jan 1, with the rest being delivered over the next two weeks.

Japan Today