Stamp Investment Tips: Japan 1934 Plane Over Lake Ashi Souvenir Sheet (Scott #C8)

On April 20, 1934, Japan celebrated Communications Commemoration Day, and issued a souvenir sheet (Scott #C8) at a philatelic exhibition in Tokyo. The four stamps in the sheet had the same design as the 1929-34 Airmail stamps (C3-7), which pictured a passenger plane of Lake Ashi. 20,000 sheets were issued.


Scott '10 prices the unused sheet at $ 1,400.00 (and $ 2,200.00 for Never Hinged), which seems expensive. It isn't, considering that Japan, with its 128 million people, is the second largest economy in the world, has a healthy stamp market on par with those of Europe, and has one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world. The percentage of Japanese aged 60 and over, which was 23% in the year 2000, is expected to rise 42%, an 82% increase, by 2050.