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American Morning

Vanity Stamps All the Rage in Japan

Aired August 02, 2001 - 09:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Think about this, you could be in the company of Georgia O'Keefe, Bugs Bunny, Elvis. Who could pass that up?

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: We have vanity license plates, so why shouldn't there be vanity stamps?

CNN's Denise Dillon tells us, it is all the rage in Japan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE DILLON, CNN ANCHOR: Smile! you could be on an envelope. This woman is having her picture taken and turning them into postage stamps. The whole process only takes about 30 minutes. Once your picture is taken and in the computer, it's printed onto a sheet of stamps. This man had his photo taken with his children.

MASAO ITAYA, ALL FOR IT (through translator): We take a lot of photographs of our children. I want to use this to send pictures of the kids to my relatives.

DILLON: The post office is hoping it will start a new trend, and people might start writing more letters, something that seems to have gone by the wayside with the emergence of e-mail.

HATSMUI SHIMIZU, POSTS MINISTRY (through translator): Certainly, e-mail is a useful method of communication, but letters are fun in a different way. We want to show young people that letters can be fun, too.

DILLON: These vanity stamps are only on sale in Japan for a short time. It's part of the international postage stamp exhibit, but they proved to be very popular -- 1,000 sets went in less than 30 minutes. Now, postal officials in Japan say that personal touch might keep customers coming back, and are considering selling them on a regular basis.

Denise Dillon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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