Japanese Postal Mark
〒 (郵便マーク, Yūbin māku?) is the service mark of Japan Post, the postal operator in Japan. It is also used as a Japanese postal code mark. The mark is stylized katakana syllable te (テ), from the word teishin (逓信 communications). The mark dates from the pre-World War II era, when literacy was less complete, the katakana symbol being more easily recognized than a kanji.
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.
Of the versions shown to the right, the one on the far right is the standard mark used in addressing. The circled yūbin mark in the middle is often used on maps to denote post offices.
Read more about Japanese Postal Mark: Unicode
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