What Are the Numbers at the Bottom of a Nengajo?

If you've received an official Japanese New Year's postcard, look along its bottom edge: there is a printed serial number. That number is a lottery ticket. Every official nenga hagaki sold by Japan Post doubles as an entry in a national New Year's prize drawing, and for many recipients, checking the numbers in mid-January is as much a part of the season as the cards themselves.

Where the lottery cards came from

Lottery-prize New Year's postcards — otoshidama-tsuki nenga hagaki, literally "New Year's gift-attached" cards — were introduced in 1949, in the lean years after the war. The idea was simple and shrewd: attach a small chance of winning a prize to every card, so that sending a greeting also meant giving the recipient a ticket. The Postal Museum Japan's history of New Year's cards covers the 1949 introduction and its place in the card's longer story; the lottery format proved enormously popular and helped drive the postwar boom in card volumes. It has remained a fixture of the official cards ever since.

The name borrows from otoshidama, the traditional New Year's gift of money given to children — the card's lottery chance is framed as a little New Year's gift riding along with the greeting.

How the drawing works

The mechanics are consistent from year to year, even as details change:

• Every official card carries a pre-printed number. You don't register or enter anything; receiving the card is the entry.
• Winning numbers are drawn and announced in mid-January, after the matsu no uchi greeting window has passed — so the cards get read as greetings first and checked as tickets second. The Nippon.com overview of nengajo customs describes the lottery as part of the modern card experience.
• Matching works by digits. Top prizes require matching the full number; smaller prizes match only the last few digits, so lower tiers are won by a meaningful share of all cards in circulation.
• Prizes are claimed at post offices in Japan within an announced claim period, by presenting the winning card. Prize tiers have varied over the decades — from practical goods in the early years to modern prize selections — and the specific prizes and odds are announced fresh each season, so treat any list you find as belonging to a particular year.

What this means for senders and recipients

For senders inside Japan, the lottery is a quiet reason official cards remain popular even as volumes decline: a card on official stock gives the recipient something extra, at no additional cost over the prepaid postage. Print shops produce photo cards on official lottery stock for exactly this reason — an option compared in our Format Chooser.

For recipients outside Japan, the number is mostly a charming artifact: the entry is real, but claiming requires presenting the card at a Japanese post office during the claim window, which is rarely practical from abroad. If a friend in Japan can check and claim on your behalf, a small prize makes a fun story.

One caution against overreading: the nengajo lottery is a promotional feature of official postal stationery, not a gambling product — there is nothing to buy beyond the card itself and nothing to wager. For the rest of what makes the official card distinctive, see what a nengajo is and the custom's history.