Японский почтовый индекс: символ и история 〒

Character representing the service mark of the postal operator in Japan

〒 (郵便記号) is the service mark of Japan Post and its successor, Japan Post Holdings, the postal operator in Japan. It is also used as a Japanese postal code mark since the introduction of the latter in 1968. Historically, it was used by the Ministry of Communications (Japan) (Ministry of Communications), which operated the postal service. The mark is a stylized katakana syllable te (テ), from the word (逓信（テイシン）). The mark was introduced on February 8, 1887 (Meiji 20.2.8).

To indicate a postal code, the mark is written first, and the postal code is written after. For example, one area of Meguro, Tokyo, would have 〒153 0061 written on any mail, in order to direct mail to that location. This usage has resulted in the inclusion of the mark into the Japanese character sets for computers, and thus eventually their inclusion into Unicode, where it can also be found on the Japanese Post Office emoji. In most keyboard based Japanese input systems, it can be created by typing "yuubin" and then doing a kanji conversion. Of the versions shown to the right, the one on the far left (〠) was the official mascot of Japan Post between 1966 and 1996, while the one on the far right (〒) is the standard mark used in addressing. A circled yūbin mark is often used on maps to denote post offices. Other variants have been used as conformity marks inherited from the Ministry of Communications: for example, a similar circled mark was used for electrical certification of Category B appliances, contrasted with a triangle enclosed postal mark (⮗) for Category A appliances, An enclosed version incorporating a sawtooth wave shape is used as a conformity mark for Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications regulations on radio and other electromagnetic wave equipment.