Assisting with International Cooperation with Used Stamps & PET Bottle Caps
About this program
Used stamps
The International Exchange Lounge collects used stamps to assist international cooperation activities. The used stamps are sent to the Japan Overseas Christian Medical Cooperation Service (JOCS), which carries out international cooperation activities around the world.
The various landscapes and pictures printed on used stamps are highly valued by collectors. Proceeds from the sales are used to help fund their medical treatment activities in Asia: purchasing milk and medicine, dispatching doctors and nurses, and so on.
Go to the JOCS website to learn more.
PET bottle caps
We also collect PET bottle caps in order to support the Hiroshima Roudou Kaikan’s “Eco-cap Action”. Through their project, the sales profits obtained by recycling caps are donated to the Japan Committee, Vaccines for the World’s Children (JCV). Please see their website to learn more.
Requests about donations
Used stamps
- When you cut stamps from envelopes, please leave about 1 cm of paper around them. (You can go slightly over 1 cm if doing so will preserve the postmark.)
- You do not need to remove them from the envelope. If you do, please separate attached stamps from removed stamps.
- Torn or folded stamps cannot be accepted.
- Please separate Japanese and foreign stamps. You do not need to separate commemorative stamps from regular stamps.
- You do not need to count the stamps.
PET bottle caps
Please observe the following to avoid damaging the recycling machines or making the caps non-recyclable:
- We only accept PET bottle caps for soft drinks or mineral water.
- Please wash the caps and remove any stickers.
- Things such as metal caps and pull-top tabs cannot be accepted.
We also accept kaki-sonji hagaki
Kaki-sonji hagaki* are unsent postcards that are old and slightly dirty, or have a name, address, etc. written incorrectly. We accept donations of kaki-sonji hagaki and other unused postcards. We exchange them at the post office for new stamps to use when sending the collected used stamps to JOCS.
If there are any kaki-sonji hagaki or unused postcards laying around your house, please donate them.
*Hagaki are specifically pre-stamped postcards that are issued by the post office
Volunteer to help sort stamps
We are looking for volunteers to cut the stamps to size and separate them before they are sent off to JOCS. If you are in the International Exchange Lounge during its opening hours, please feel free to help at any time. We appreciate your support.
