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As I mentioned in a post last January, 年賀状 (New Years Postcards) are very popular in Japan.
These postcards have a six-digit number printed on the back in the lower right-hand corner, and every January the Japanese post office draws random numbers for a Postcard lottery in which people with postcards that have a winning number receive a prize.

Click here to read that post.

Well, Japan also has a tradition of sending postcards to friends and family in the summer. This tradition isn’t practiced anywhere near to the extent that the New Years postcards are…but there’s also a Post Office Lottery for these cards as well.

Here are the winning numbers for the Japanese Post Card lottery for Summer 2009:

For the “A” Prize (¥200,000):
▲ 035890
▲ 723606
▲ 817512

For “B” Prize (a sheet of postage stamps):
▲ any number with the last three digits 352

The last prize (¥10,000):
▲ any number with the last four digits 4452

Did you receive any Summer Postcards this year?
Do any have a winning lottery number on them?

None of the postcards we received this summer won.

Leaders first meeting

Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, went to New York yesterday and had his first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Japan Prime Minister Hatoyama and U.S. President Obama

For the U.S., the issue of Japan continued help with the “War On Terrorism” is of top concern.
For Japan, it’s the issue of reducing the number of the U.S. military stationed in Japan…and abolishing nuclear weapons in the world.

But for this first meeting, the only major issue raised was about ridding the world of nuclear weapons.
Both Hatoyama and Obama said that they’d like to see an end to the nuclear threat in the world.

As the only country that has ever been attacked by nuclear weapons, this issue is important to Japan.
Prime Minister Hatoyama reiterated Japan’s stance that all nuclear weapons should be abolished and invited the the American president to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki when he comes to Tokyo next November.

No U.S. President has ever visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki .