The special place of postcards in Japan

Front, with the information.

People send postcards in Japan. Not scenic ones, generally, but informative ones. They're used for New Year and birthday greetings (the latter generally by businesses who happen to know your birthday or from things your kids are associated with, like Sunday School).

Another use of postcards is reminders. This one we received this week to remind us that it was time for my husband to make another dental appointment.

This struck me as quite different to Australia. These days in Australia we might get a text from the dentist. 

Japan is odd—such a reputation for technology, but the uptake on using technology in daily, domestic life has been slow. City offices seem bowed down in paperwork, the pharmacy has several people dealing with paperwork whenever I visit, and faxes (rather than email) have been extremely popular until relatively recently.

Back: reserved for address and stamp. It is frowned on to write
much on the back. And only 52 yen to post (62 Australian cents).
Probably one reason why it's remained a popular way to communicate.