Why Japan Uses the 〒 Symbol: The Story Behind Postmark Day

Postmark Day, observed on February 8th annually, marks the creation of Japan’s distinctive postal symbol: 〒, as you can see at the top of the photo in this post. It looks like katakana "テ" and it is intentional. It represents the "te" in "teishin" (逓信), which is an old word for communications.

Reportedly, the original idea was to use the kanji radical “丁”, taken from the first sound of teishin. However, it was determined that it looked too like English "t", which as the time was used globally to indicate to indicate insufficient postage. That "t" came from the French "taxe". It is essentially obsolete in modern society. 

But when the Japanese Ministry of Communications was introducing their postmark in 1887 it was very much still in use. To avoid confusion, the ministry redesigned the mark, stylizing the katakana “テ”, and officially adopted the familiar 〒 symbol which is still in use today.