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Lucky Star Postage Stamps Issued on New Year's Eve

The Japanese postal service announced last Friday that a temporary branch office will issue Lucky Star postage stamp sets on New Year's Eve at Washinomiya Shrine. The shrine is the Tokyo area's oldest and a real-life backdrop for the Lucky Star anime and manga series.

Each stamp set will include one sheet of ten 50-yen postage stamps, three postcards in special shapes, and an original sticker. A total of 3,000 sets will be sold for 2,000 yen (about US$25) each. The sets will be available at the shrine from December 31 to January 3, and 117 regular post offices in Saitama Prefecture will begin selling the stamps on January 4.

Every year since the Lucky Star anime premiered in 2007, visitors have traveled to Washinomiya Shrine during the New Year's holidays for the traditional Japanese first shrine visit of the year. A record 470,000 fans visited the shrine in the first three days of this year, and that number was more than five times greater than the 2007 attendance.

The Japanese postal service also issued two kinds of postage stamp souvenir sheets for the K-ON! franchise on November 15, and it will issue postage stamps inspired by the Dragon Ball Kai anime series on January 23.

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Source: ITmedia via Moe Otanews Sokuhō