This symbol,
Unicode decimal 12306, is the official logo of
Japan Post, and appears on
post offices,
mailboxes, stores that sell
stamps and
postcards, and in writing to denote
zip codes (I once lived in 〒565-0083). It is called
郵便記号 yûbin kigo or
郵便マーク yûbin mâku in
Japanese, and is entered in most
input method editors by typing "yuubin." In case you don't have it on your computer, it looks like this:
_______
_______
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Two theories circulate over the origin of this symbol. One states that it comes from the
katakana syllable テ
te, the first character in the postal ministry's original 1800's name,
Teishinsho. The other states that the logo was originally a capital "
T," before the agency discovered that "T" was an international symbol for
insufficient postage, and modified the mark by adding an extra line.