Baron) Maejima, following American models. A government postal service was then established along the Tōkaidō between Tōkyō, Kyōto, and Ōsaka, and extended in 1872 to the whole country, with the exception of certain parts of Yezo. The 1 sen 6 rin, 8 sen, and 16 sen stamps of those early days have become extremely rare. Concurrently with the Imperial Japanese post-office, American postal agencies continued to exist at the Treaty Ports until the end of 1873, and French and English agencies until 1879, when Japan was admitted into the International Postal Union, with full management of all her postal affairs. Japanese letter-postage soon became the cheapest in the world, because originally based on a silver standard which naturally shared in the universal depreciation of that metal. Inland letters went for 2 sen, that is, about a halfpenny, post-cards for half that sum. In 1899 these rates were raised fifty per cent, so that domestic letters now cost 3 sen (for ½oz.), post-cards 1½ sen. Foreign postage to all countries included in the Postal Union is 10 sen (two pence halfpenny, though originally intended to be equivalent to fivepence). There is an excellent system of postal savings-banks, and money orders and parcel-post are largely made use of. In the last year for which statistics are available (1903), the number of domestic letters carried was 213,956,000, of post-cards 488,890,000, and of parcels 10,413,000, while the miscellaneous items amounted to 199,845,000. The total of foreign items (letters, post-cards, etc.) was 13,808,000. The dead-letter office in Japan has very light work, as it is the commendable national habit for correspondents to put their own name and address on the back of the envelope.
During the early years of its independent career, the Japanese post-office won golden opinions. Of late it has fallen somewhat in public esteem. The reason of the deterioration may probably be found in the want of continuity in the executive, and in the fact that the Ministry of Communications, to which the post-office belongs, has come to be treated as a political prize, which is bestowed, not on a competent specialist, but on some politician
