Stamps featuring actor Bae Yong-joon will be published concurrently in Korea and Japan, where no other celebrity or even popular cultural figure has been featured on stamps before. This unprecedented event is all the more meaningful as it comes at a time when Japanese politicians are causing controversy over historical distortions.
The "BYJ Stamp Collection", which is due out in early May, will be published by the Korea Post of Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication and Japan's Postal Services Agency. A total of 30,000 sets, each including stamps, five envelopes and five postcards featuring Bae's photos, will be released in both countries. Due to a large price difference between Korea and Japan, 20 stamps per set will be published in Korea but only 10 in Japan (a standard stamp costs 220 won in Korea and 80 yen in Japan, or roughly 750 won).
Each of the 30 snapshots of Bae to be used on the stamps features different images. Most of them are from Bae's photo album "The Image, Vol. One", which was published last year.
At the head of this project is director of Uijeongbu Post Office Ji Kyu-seop, who was the first to suggest publishing the stamp collection to commemorate the popularity of the miniseries "Winter Sonata" when he was working at Chuncheon Post Office (Chuncheon City is where the drama was filmed).
"This collection will be the first stamp collection featuring a celebrity. So far, only presidents and Professor Hwang Woo-seok of Seoul National University have been featured in stamps aside from historical figures. And Bae will become the first person, aside from presidents, to be featured on stamps simultaneously in Korea and Japan", said Ji.
The collection of stamps for domestic use have alreay been published, but their release is being postponed to allow a simultaneous release in both co
English ) 
US$5 off (order min. US$5)
