Don't be afraid to be a behind-the-scenes worker. Always hold a heart that wishes others well.

— Maejima Hisoka（前島 密, 1835–1919）

I often think of those who shape a city's infrastructure and daily life as stagehands, working behind the scenes to keep everything in motion. Maejima's words speak to this idea, a collectivist ethic favouring quiet contribution over individual acclaim. He lived this principle as the bureaucrat who founded Japan's modern postal system. Across a storied career, it was his defining accomplishment—the kind that fundamentally alters a nation but brings little adoration. In today's culture, which rewards visibility and self-promotion, Maejima offers a counterpoint that affirms the social value of unseen labour.

Even as public life grows more individualised, I sense Maejima's ethos in the Japan Post worker buzzing through neighbourhood streets on a red Honda Super Cub, dutifully completing their rounds. I sense it in the handwritten slip pushed through my letterbox after a missed delivery, offering the chance to reschedule, sometimes later that same day. And I sense it in the glossy red postboxes stationed across Tokyo, waiting purposefully for the day's mail.

Few work harder than the humble postbox among the city's many pieces of street furniture. Of the approximately 155,000 postboxes across Japan, around 9,000 are located in Tokyo. Within the capital, roughly 1,800 sit inside konbini, 1,500 are affixed to post offices, and 70 are placed in areas inaccessible to the public. The remaining majority stand on street corners, line arterial roads, or perch between play parks, vending machines, and utility poles. Throughout the day, Tokyoites pass by, dropping in letters—until, four times daily, the boxes are relieved of their load.

Japan's postboxes were not always glossy and red. Maejima launched the Yūbin Yakusho (郵便役所) postal service on April 20, 1871, with a single daily route between Tokyo and Kyoto. That day, the country's first postboxes made their debut. They were simple wooden containers mounted on stands, known as shojō atsume bako (書状集め箱), or "letter collection boxes", with roofs echoing the lines of traditional architecture.