Japan Post issues stamps commemorating 150th anniversary of railways in Japan

Courtesy of Japan Post Co.
A sheet of stamps issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of railways in Japan

A sheet of stamps issued by the Japan Post Co. and commemorating 150 years of railway operation in Japan since October 1872 went on sale online and at post offices nationwide on Wednesday.

The sheet has 10 ¥84 stamps, each featuring a train representing a different period over the 150 years, such as a locomotive engine for the dawn of Japanese railways; a KiHa 58-class diesel railcar, a model used across the country; and a 0-series shinkansen, the first shinkansen bullet train.

The Japan Post is issuing 600,000 of these commemorative stamp sheets, each priced at ¥840. The sheets also carry a print of an early Japanese railway originally made by 19th-century ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige III.

The first domestic railway in Japan ran between Shimbashi Station in Tokyo and Yokohama Station.