Japanese Railway Stamp Rallies

[bill937ca]

It's the end of summer and in Japan August 31st is end of many stamp rallies.

 

Leroy Demery, one of the co-authors of the Electric Railways of Japan series has described a stamp railly this way:

 

"The company conducts all sorts of promotions throughout the year, maintaining high visibility. I remember one that involved specially discounted two-day tickets, and came with a souvenir stamp book (with spaces to be marked by large rubber stamps found at various stations). "Stamp Rallies" are aimed more at junior-high and high school students, but adults indulge as well. A salaryman and I marked our books one afternoon at one station; "Oh, what the hell, let's pretend for a moment that we are boys again."

 

Stamp rallies tend to occur at New Years, Spring Break (the time at the end of the Japanese school year in mid-March until the new school year starts in April) and during summer vacation which this year was July 18 to August 31.  Once the card is filled out with all the stamps the player is eligible to win prizes.  In the case of the Hanshin-Kintetsu stamp rally this year the prizes included a gift certificate at the Ritz Carlton or 10 pairs of tickets along the third base line at Hanshin Tigers baseball games.  For the other stamp rallies the prizes may be cell phones or video games.

 

Generally there is a character figure theme, although the Hanshin-Kintetsu through service Stamp Rally was aimed at adults.  Here are some Stamp Rallies on Japanese railways in 2009

 

 

JR West        Winter ICPCA Stamp Rally

Seibu                Little Edo Kawagoe Seven Lucky Gods

Tsukuba Exp TX Doraemon

Hanshin Namba Kintetsu & Hanshin direct operation

JR West        Doraemon

SL Yamaguchi

Keihan        Thomas The Tank Last Run

Hankyu, Hanshin Kamen Rider Decade

JR Kyushu        Pocket Monster

Kintetsu        Naruto-Shippuuden The Movie

Tama Monorail Anniversary Stamp Rally

Sotetsu        Maru animals Zurashia Yata

Keisei                Let's Go Chiba!

Tobu (Tojo Line) Se the princess summer

Tobu                Bonbokizzu

 

 

 

A You Tube contributor writes:

 

*This is the Pokemon stamp rally 2009 which is holding *East Japan railway corporation(JR East Japan). *I joined it on August 5. *I stamped more than 20 stamps in a day...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl3ArRHsj_A&translated=1

 

 

Danny Choo's web site shows what the stamp looks like, what the stamp stand looks like and the chart of stamps.

 

http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/959/Japan+Stamp+Rally.html

 

Here's another example of a Stamp Rally.

 

http://www.dotpattern.com/artwerk/rubber-stamps/japan-rubber-stamps.html

 

More links:

 

Stamp Rallies

 

http://weekenderjapan.com/?p=3324

 

Pokemon Yamanote Train

 

http://shibuya246.com/2009/08/06/pokemon-yamanote-train/

 

 

This is not just modern marketing. Collecting stamps during summer in Japan has its origins in pilgrimages to temples and shrines which along with today's stamp rallies remain a mainstay of Japanese railway traffic.

[bill937ca]

Here's an interesting article on the JR Pokenon stamp rally.  There are 300,000 sheets out there. All you got to is get 92 stamps at 92 stations during the hottest, most humid time of the year.  300,000 kids and 300,000 harried parents!!   ???

 

http://blog.cyber-media.co.jp/2009/08/12/recruiting-new-customers-in-japan-the-monster-rally-2009/