Shin-Tōmei Expressway Opening Commemoration
Promotional playing cards for the Shin-Tōmei Expressway, a major Japanese expressway that opened in 2012.

The Joker features a sunburst behind a car which creates a sense of excitement and positive energy, while the road graphic on the back of the playing cards resembles a highway lane overwritten with Shin-Tōmei. The featured car is a Fiat 500 Abarth-style compact, adorned with branding for the Expressway. The overall design endeavours to convey modernity and well-designed transportation.
The woman on the box wears a black-and-white chequered outfit, reminiscent of a racing flag. Interestingly, by featuring an all-women team in coordinated outfits on the cards likely aims to evoke friendliness and approachability. Infrastructure projects are typically perceived as male-dominated and technical, so this contrast softens and humanizes the image of the Shin-Tōmei Expressway.

Above: Shin-Tōmei Expressway Opening Commemorative playing cards published by Nexco Central Japan (Nippon Expressway Company), 2012. The cards measure 74mm x 52mm.
All the cards form a 4 x 13 picture showing a map of the new expressway.


By Jon Randall
Member since May 28, 2020
From 6 or 7 years of age I enjoyed playing cards with my family, and still enjoy a variety of games today with various groups and individuals. I contribute my competitive nature to enjoying games … it’s not that I like to win, I dislike losing! I was barely 10 years old when my great Uncle left me a small collection of playing cards and that was the starting point of my collecting. The competitive streak in me helped develop me into a competitive swimmer that sent me to various places around the world, including a 6 year stint in the US, where for much of that time I was at university. I’ve always enjoyed car boots flea markets, yard sales, charity shops etc., and my eye would never miss a pack of playing cards. Even after my swimming career finished I coached at a high level for many years and continued enjoying the discovery of some great finds around the world. For decades my collection continued to grow, despite selling a portion of it via eBay over the years. It wasn’t until post 2010 that I realised, mostly due to correspondence with Australian friends, that there were so many single playing card collectors. This intrigued me. I had so many packs of cards at home that I made the bold decision to share a good number with singles collectors, and subsequently listed around 7000 for sale on eBay. That did make a dent in my collection, but there’s still around 30,000 packs taking up quite a bit of space at home. Crazy? Yes, but I’ve seen bigger hoards a few times! There’s so many I surprise myself finding packs I forgot I had when I look in a box I’d not seen in a while.
My eBay IDs if you’d like to look are “worldwide_playing_cards” & “playing_cards_world”►
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