I hereby promulgate the Law for Partial Amendments to the Mail Law. Signed:HIROHITO, Seal of the Emperor This thirty-first day of the tenth month of the twenty-sixth year of Showa (October 31, 1951) Prime Minister YOSHIDA Shigeru Law No.254 Law for Partial Amendments to the Mail Law The Mail Law (Law No.165 of 1947) shall be partially amended as follows: In Article 17 paragraph 1 item (1), "Of the fourth class {Samples and pattern of merchandise} 300 grams {Printed matter only in braille points for the use of the blind} 3 kilograms" shall be amended as " Of the fourth class{Matter printed only in braille points for the use of the blind} 3 kilograms ". Article 19 shall be amended as follows:

Article 19. Deleted.

In Article 20 paragraph 1, "or the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan" shall be added next to "the Ministry of Telecommunications" and "in accordance with the provisions of Ministerial Ordinance" shall be added next to "may be mailed free of postage" , and in paragraph 2 of the same Article, "otherwise provided for in other laws or" shall be deleted. Article 21 shall be amended as follows:

Article 21. (First-Class Mail Matter) The following shall be mail matter of the first class: 1. Mail matter containing letters in writing (matter on which is written correspondence (including the cases where it is typewritten or produced by stamping process) addressed to specific persons or legal entities, with the exception of post cards;hereinafter the same). 2. Mail matter not unsealed (excluding that completely sealed in accordance with the provision of the latter part of Article 26 paragraph 1). The rate of postage on first-class matter shall be 10 yen for each 20 grams in weight or fraction thereof.

Article 22 paragraph 2 shall be amended as follows: The rates of postage on second-class matter shall be 5 yen for single post cards, 10 yen for reply-paid post cards and 6 yen for parcel post cards. However, the rate of postage shall be 4 yen on single post cards deposited for mailing as New Year Greeting cards within the period from December 15 to January 10 of the next year, in accordance with the provisions of Ministerial Ordinance. In Article 23 paragraph 4, "3 yen" shall be amended as "4 yen" and "80 sen" shall be amended as "1 yen" , and in paragraph 5 of the same Article, "1,200 yen" shall be amended as "2,000 yen" . In Article 25 paragraph 2, "600 yen" shall be amended as "1,000 yen" and "900 yen" shall be amended as "1,500 yen" . Articles 26 and 27 shall be amended as follows:

Article 26. (Fourth-Class Mail Matter) The following shall be, under unsealed cover, mail matter of the fourth class. Mail matter containing silk-worm eggs which is completely sealed with the approval of the mailing post office shall be the same: 1. Mail matter (excluding those containing letters in writing) which is deposited for mailing in conformity with the provisions of Ministerial Ordinance and which is sent from or received by a school or legal entity engaged in education by correspondence with the permission or qualification by the supervising government office and its students for purposes of such correspondence education. 2. Mail matter the only content of which is in braille points for the use of the blind. 3. Mail matter containing such seeds of plants, seedlings, young plants, stems, roots, barks and mushrooms as are used for planting or cultivation. 4. Mail matter containing such silk-worm eggs, eggs of domestic fowls, bees and edible frogs as are used for breeding. 5. Mail matter containing samples of food-stuffs exchanged between Government or Public Offices for the examination of food-stuffs in accordance with the provisions of law and order. The rates of postage on fourth-class matter shall be as follows: 1. Articles referred to in item (1) of the preceding paragraph For each 100 grams in weight or fraction thereof 4 yen 2. Articles referred to in item (2) of the preceding paragraph For each 1 kilogram in weight or fraction thereof 1 yen 3. Articles referred to in items (3) to (5) inclusive of the preceding paragraph For each 100 grams in weight or fraction thereof 2 yen

Article 27. (Fifth-Class Mail Matter) Mail matter not falling under any of the articles of the first to fourth classes shall be mail matter of the fifth class. The rate of postage on fifth-class matter shall be 8 yen for each 100 grams in weight or fraction thereof.

The following one Article shall be added next to Article 27:

Article 27-(2). (Rate of Postage on Urban Special Mail) The rate of postage on fifth-class matter which fulfils the following conditions shall be 5 yen, regardless of the provision of paragraph 2 of the preceding Article: 1. That it shall be sent and received only within one and the same postal area (meaning the mail delivery district fixed for each post office;hereinafter the same), within one and the same ward of To, or within one and the same city, town or village (within one and the same ward, in the case of the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya). 2. That it shall not exceed 100 grams in weight. 3. That it shall be deposited for mailing by the same sender at the same time in a number of one hundred or more with the same contents, in accordance with the provisions of Ministerial Ordinance.

In Article 31, "25 yen" shall be amended as "30 yen" , "35 yen" as "50 yen" , "45 yen" as "65 yen" , and "55 yen" as "85 yen" , respectively, and the following one paragraph shall be added to the same Article: Parcels weighing not more than 4 kilograms and exceeding 1 meter in length, breadth and depth combined shall be regarded as weighing over 4 kilograms but not more than 6 kilograms in respect to the calculation of the rate of postage referred to in the preceding paragraph. In Article 32 paragraph 4, "and The Bank of Japan" shall be amended as ", The Bank of Japan and The Social Insurance Medical Fee Payment Fund" . In Article 32-(2) paragraph 2, "1 yen" shall be amended as "2 yen" . In Article 34 paragraph 3, "600 yen" shall be amended as "1,000 yen" . In Article 43 paragraph 2, "15 yen" shall be amended as "20 yen" , "30 yen" as "40 yen" and "20 yen" as "30 yen" , respectively. Article 44 shall be amended as follows:

Article 44. (Redirection) When the addressee of mail matter other than urban special mail provided for in Article 27-(2) has changed his address, the mail matter shall be redirected to the new address, if it is known. In this case, neither special-delivery nor air transmission service shall be given to the mail matter, even if it has been intended for such service. Upon redirection of a parcel or a registered letter mail, the Ministry of Postal Services shall cause the following charge to be paid anew by the addressee. When the addressee refuses to pay such charge, the sender shall pay the same: 1. Parcels The same postage and fee (excluding any special-service fee other than registration fee) as in the case of the mail matter being deposited for mailing at the post office which shall redirect the same to the new address. 2. Registered letter mail Registration fee for the mail matter

In Article 48 paragraph 1, "2,160 yen" shall be amended as "3,000 yen" , "1,800 yen" as "2,400 yen" , "1,440 yen" as "1,800 yen" and "135 yen" as "180 yen" , respectively. In the Table of Article 50 paragraph 2, "360 yen" shall be amended as "500 yen" , "240 yen" as "320 yen" , "150 yen" as "200 yen" , "630 yen" as "900 yen" , "420 yen" as "560 yen" , "260 yen" as "350 yen" , "1,080 yen" as "1,500 yen" , "720 yen" as "960 yen" , "450 yen" as "600 yen" , respectively and in paragraph 3 of the same Article, "108 yen" shall be amended as "180 yen" . The following shall be added as the latter part of Article 52 paragraph 1: In this case, neither special-delivery nor air transmission service shall be given to the mail matter, even if it has been intended for such service. Article 53 shall be amended as follows:

Article 53. (Charges on Mail Matter to be Returned) For parcels or registered letter mails to be returned to the sender, the following charge shall be paid anew by him: 1. Parcels The same postage and fee (excluding any special-service fee other than registration fee) as in the case of the mail matter being deposited for mailing, addressed to the sender's address, at the post office which shall effect mail delivery service to the destination of the mail matter. 2. Registered letter mail Registration fee for the mail matter For the mail matter which is to be returned to the sender in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Article and for which postage has not been paid or has been paid insufficiently, the sender shall pay a charge equivalent to the double unpaid postage. No Translation

In Article 58 paragraph 2, "shall be equivalent to the amount of the cash" shall be amended as "shall not exceed the amount of the cash" , and paragraph 5 of the same Article shall be amended as follows: Registration fees shall be as follows: 1. When the claimable amount of indemnity does not exceed 1,000 yen 35 yen 2. When the claimable amount of indemnity exceeds 1,000 yen 35 yen plus the amount of money computed at the rate of 5 yen in the case of articles the content of which is cash and at the rate of 1 yen in the case of articles the content of which is other than cash, for each 2,000 yen or fraction thereof over 1,000 yen. In Article 60 paragraph 3, "20 yen" shall be amended as "25 yen" and "30 yen" shall be amended as "40 yen" , respectively, and the following one paragraph shall be added next to the same paragraph: The provisions of Article 51 shall apply mutatis mutandis to those of the special-delivery letter mails not intended for any other special service on which the charge paid does not reach the total amount of their postage and special-delivery fee but is not less than the equivalent of the special-delivery fee referred to in the preceding paragraph. In Article 60-(2) paragraph 4 item (1), "20 yen" shall be amended as "25 yen" and in item (2) of the same paragraph, "10 yen" shall be amended as "15 yen" and "20 yen" as "30 yen" , and in item 3 of the same paragraph, "15 yen" shall be amended as "20 yen" . In Article 61 paragraph 3, "45 yen" shall be amended as "50 yen" . In Article 62 paragraph 4 and Article 63 paragraph 3, "45 yen" shall be amended as "50 yen and" 23 yen "as" 25 yen", respectively. In Article 64 paragraph 4 and Article 66 paragraph 3, "45 yen" shall be amended as "50 yen" In Article 69, "or the addressee, inherent natu or flaw of the article or force majeure" shall amended as "or the addressee, or inherent natu or flaw of the article" . Supplementary Provisions: 1 This Law shall come into force as from Nover ber 1, 1951. 2 The rate of postage on single post cards deposi ed for mailing as New Year Greeting card within the period from December 15, 1951 January 10, 1952, in accordance with the provsion of the proviso to Article 22 paragraph shall be 2 yen, regardless of the provision of th proviso to the same paragraph. 3 Mail matter deposited for mailing prior to th enforcement of this Law shall be governed b the previous Law. 4 The collection charge for a private letter bo or the rent for a post office box which is bein used or rented at the time of the enforcement o this Law shall be collectible at the monthly rat for the then current period. Minister of Postal Services SATO Eisaku President of Economic Stabilization Board YOSHIDA Shigeru Prime Minister YOSHIDA Shigeru