Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya has been chosen as an image character for an ad campaign by the recently privatized Japan Post. The tradition of sending out New Year's cards has been fading away in favor of e-mail, but the post office is hoping that Ninomiya can help persuade consumers to use its services. He will appear in commercials starting on the 25th.

The company also recently announced that it has teamed up with KDDI to offer a new service that lets users create New Year's cards through text messaging.