Today's Notables

This year on will be a trial period for TK.(*) The New Year's greeting cards are different this year. Writing New Year cards became a custom in the Heian period and New Year greetings cards as we know them now, started in the Meiji period. You might also know that the postal service issued New Year greetings cards were started in the spring of 1959. Now, only once a year, we look through hundreds, one at a time, from friends and family on New Years Day. This once-a-year look at familiar faces over the past year is one of the more enjoyable things about the holiday. More recently, e-mail has also become another mode of New Year's greetings cards and with privatization of the postal service, we may see even more change in this familiar custom.

At TK, we also looked at how we might enhance the way we do New Years greetings. Of course, New Year greetings are extremely important. It is essential to directly express to customers the course of business at the end and beginning of the year. We sent out seasons greetings cards right at Christmas. This year, we used a specially designed greeting card with the catch phrase, "Blending Science into Innovation." From here on, we will come up with a message and design specifically for that year.

There are only a few days left in the year and sometimes it seems like the New Year spirit has waned somewhat. One cause may be the economic slump and there are longer vacations at the end and beginning of the year in the manufacturing industry. The retail industry, however, would love the opportunity to have just one more day of business at this time and some are even open on New Year's Day. Convenience stores, naturally are open and about 80% of department stores are open on January 2nd. I can remember the busy end of the year with cleaning and shopping which really gave meaning to the word "shiwasu". However, it seems like people need to shop less and less. The end of the year doesn't really seem any different than usual. Still the New Year gives us the opportunity to have a nice break, and come back with a renewed feeling toward the New Year. I hope we can come back refreshed with hopefully a more robust growth. Have a very happy New Year.


*PRIMIX Corporation has been change name at November 21,2005, from Tokushu Kika Kogyo.