Japan postage stamp: letter writing bear

c. 1980, for Letter Writing Day

designed by M. Sato and S. Watanabe

Ryukyu Islands stamp: Japan and U.S.A. flags

c. 1972

in honor of United States-Japan Agreement to return Ryukyu Islands to Japan

designed by S. Tamanaha

Japan postage stamp: sun and dragonflies

c. 1923, part of Earthquake Emergency Series

designed M. Yoshizaki

“The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed the warehouses of the Printing Bureau and Communications Ministry (the current Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications). The equipment necessary for producing stamps and most of the stamps which had been stored were lost. As an emergency measure to make up for the shortage of stamps, the government consigned production of stamps to a private corporation. This corporation produced stamps known as the ‘Earthquake stamps.’ The stamps did not have perforations or glue, but a watermark called the ‘earthquake watermark’ was used. The Printing Bureau was reconstructed much sooner than expected and the earthquake stamps were abolished on April 30, 1925.” —Evolution of Japanese Stamps

Please visit the Red Cross or other charitable organizations to help victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Japan and other affected regions. Google has launched Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake and W+K Tokyo has set up a person finding aggregator, buji.me/.

Japan postage stamp: Year of the Rabbit

c. 1963

Japan postage stamp: cherry blossoms

c. 1923

Japan postage stamp: akita dog

c. 1953

There is a brief mention of this specific stamp (or a similar one) in an article on the Telegraph titled: Morie Sawataishi: Saviour of Japan’s akita Samurai dog

Japan Postage Stamp: pink on pink

c. 1913?

Japan Postage Stamp: blue lines

anyone know when this is from and more info about this style of design?

Japanese postage stamp c. 1975 (via acejet70 on flickr)