Until around 2000, the custom of sending nengajo, or New Years greetings, to friends, family and business associates was widespread in Japan, but since then it has become less so. According to Japan Post, mail carriers delivered 3.7 billion New Years cards in 1999. That number dropped to 2.6 billion in 2012. More significantly for JP, which is in the process of being privatized, the organization sold 4.2 billion cards in 1999 and 3.3 billion in 2012.

The 22 percent drop in sales shows how much business JP has lost over the last 13 years, since nengajo account for 10 percent of JP's total postal-related business. In fact, JP depends on sales of New Years cards to make up for the loss in other areas. But look at that other statistic, the one showing how many cards were actually sold, and a question has to arise in your mind: Why is there such a huge gap between the number of nengajo sold and the number delivered? What happened to the 700 million cards that were sold but not delivered in 2012?

It's a question Asahi Shimbun attempted to answer in a recent article about the practice known as jibaku eigyo (suicide bomber sales), which many employees of Japan Post resort to at this time of year. One of the reasons sales of New Years postcards (nenga-hagaki) is so high is that almost all employees of the postal service sell them. They have quotas, and while there are no written stipulations that require employees to meet their numbers, it's tacitly understood that their future in the company is jeopardized if they don't.