[originaltext] Japanese people, who never miss a chance to be photographed,

Japanese people, who never miss a chance to be photographed, were lining up to get their picture on a post age stamp. Vanity stamps that feature personal photographs went on sale for the first time in Japan as part of an international postage stamp exhibition. The customer’s photo is taken with a digital camera and then printed on stamp sheets, a process that takes about five minutes. Sold in a sheet of 10 stamps for $ 8. 80, little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo, each stamp features a different scene from a traditional ukiyo-e along with the photo.  The stamps can be used normally to mail a letter, and postal officials hope they will help promote interest in letter-writing in the Internet age. "Certainly e-mail is a useful method of communication, but letters are fun in a different way," said an official in the Posts Ministry. "We want to show young people that letters can be fun too." While similar stamp sheets debuted in Australia in 1999 and are now sold in some 12 nations and territories, Japan’s fondness for commemorative photos is likely to make them especially popular here. Indeed, officials had prepared 1,000 sheets but they were sold out in less than 30 minutes. Although the stamps are currently only available as a special service during the exhibition, postal officials said they might start selling them on a regular basis in the future.