Japan reveals its joint issue with United States

The website of Japan Post is showing preliminary artwork for its half of the upcoming joint issue with the United States.

The United States and Japan will participate in a joint stamp issue April 10 to commemorate the 1915 gift of dogwood trees sent to Japan by President William Howard Taft.

The two U.S. forever stamps will show flowering dogwood blossoms on one and cherry blossoms on the other. The Cherry Blossoms stamp includes the Lincoln Memorial, while the Dogwood Blossoms stamp features the U.S. Capitol.

Japan Post's stamp pane shows two stamps using the same U.S. designs at bottom left, with two similar stamps featuring Japanese landmarks at upper left.

Six additional stamps in three designs (two of each) depicting flowering tree blossoms are found on the right side of Japan's stamp pane.

All 10 stamps on Japan's pane are denominated 82 yen, the current domestic letter rate.

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Acting Director of USPS Stamp Services Cindy Tackett told reporters in a Feb. 13 telephone conference that the U.S. issue will consist of 12 forever stamps. Ten will show the U.S. design, and two will show the corresponding Japanese design.

The new joint issue stamps resemble the two Cherry Blossom Centennial forever stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service March 24, 2012 (Scott 4651-4652), and the illustrations were created by the same artist, Paul Rogers.

The Postal Service and Japan Post are referring to this issue as Gifts of Friendship.

Text on Japan's pane reads, in English, "Centennial Celebration of the Gift of Flowering Dogwood Trees from the U.S. 1915-2015" and "Gifts of Friendship."

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