The greatest annual philatelic event, JAPEX is over

Some exhibitors are satisfied with the awards they have attained and others are frustrated, as are the case with every philatelic competition. We encourage those frustrated exhibitors to challenge again next year after improving their exhibits following the advices of Jury members to obtain better medals.

Likewise, we, organizers are satisfied and frustrated. We could gather more exhibits than recent years. Especially, our special exhibits; (1) Switzerland, (2) Japanese Occupation in South East Asia, (3) Japanese Local Marcophily were ambitious projects.

We believed that these special exhibits of different areas of philately would be appreciated and could attract more visitors. But, the result was disappointing; we could not gather as many visitors as previous year; it was below our expectation.

There must be many reasons to be analysed and self-examined. The Downfall of philatelist population may be the most fundamental factor, but we regret we could have done more for publicity of the exhibition and for the promotion of philately in general.

Let's stop complaining, and let's seek some means to revitalize philately, our common and traditional hobby.