In Japan, most people have been using prepaid post cards for New Year postcards since old times though it is changing to emails nowadays. It's not only because of the lottery but because of the system. A special delivery system is applied for them, and whenever people posted them the cards will be kept in post offices until January 1st.
That's why the New Year postcards have a special design compared to usual postcards in the upper photos. The left hand side photo shows the New Year postcards and the right hand side one shows usual prepaid postcards. New Year post cards are usually printed in red color and clearly written "New Year Greeting Card for which year".
Therefore people don't have to worry about when their cards will be delivered. The cards are surely delivered on January 1st, the best time to say New Year's wishes.
By the way, what people can get with the winning lottery? For this year, the first prize is either one of travel/home appliances or cash, the second prize is a box of local specialty products and the third prize is a set of stamps as shown in the lower photos. The third prize is always same since the system started.
Of course it would be difficult to win the first or the second prizes. However the third one's probability is 1/50cards, so it's not so difficult to win. Thus, these New Year greeting cards are actually carrying people's New Year wish and also a wish for winning a prize from the lottery.
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