＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
As for “New Year’s greeting cards,” not only has it been reported in the press that they are on the decline year after year, but I have personally experienced this trend myself.
The number of New Year’s cards issued peaked at 4.4 billion in 2003, and is said to have fallen to 2.4 billion in 2018. A few years ago, there was a problem with postal workers taking large amounts of New Year’s cards that they had been forced to buy as part of a “quota” to gift certificate shops.
Related articles:＜The Evils of Japan’s “Excessive Quotas”＞
1. A sharp increase in “New Year’s Card Retirement” (New Year’s Card Retirement Planning)
Deciding whether to continue sending New Year’s cards or stop can be a difficult decision, and I’m sure everyone has experienced it.
There was a time when there were calls to “abolishment of empty formalities” but although the number of New Year’s cards has gradually decreased, there has not been a sudden decrease.
However, this year, there has been a sharp increase in requests for “New Year’s card closings.” According to New Year’s card printing companies, in normal years, there were many requests to print messages such as “child birth announcements” and “marriage announcements,” but this year, there has been a sharp increase in requests to print messages for “New Year’s card closings.”
Nengajyo-jimai“ is a ”declaration of the end of New Year’s greeting cards,” but it is also ”Dansyari（断捨離）”（a separation） as part of the end-of-life activities.
2. Reasons for the sudden increase in “ending New Year’s cards”
“Ending New Year’s cards” means “reassessing one’s relationships” and “sorting,” so to speak, but what is the reason for this sudden increase?
(1) Young people don’t feel the need to send New Year’s cards because they can get by on social media.
(2) Older people send fewer New Year’s cards as the number of people they send them to naturally decreases with each passing year. As part of their “preparation for the end,” they are considering sending fewer New Year’s cards.
(3) Next year is Heisei 31, and they want to use this year’s New Year’s cards as an opportunity to organize their New Year’s cards, as the Heisei era ends.
3. How to write a polite “New Year’s greeting card closing message”
However, even if you write a “New Year’s greeting card closing message,” if the other person takes it as a “message to cut ties” and feels bad, it will ruin the relationship you have built up thus far.
So how about trying the following methods to ensure that your writing is not offensive?
(1) Be sure to include the phrase “I look forward to your continued relationship.”
(2) Tell them how to contact you other than by postcard or letter (email, Twitter, etc.)
It’s also a good idea to avoid mentioning negative things like “illness” or “old age” so as not to worry the other person.