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I wrote a fan letter to Japanese actors that I admire.

It was compulsory to write his name on the envelope,

so I just simply put **Xさん**

However, I later noticed that everyone seems to address him as **X様**

I was quite confused since I have never seen anyone address him this way on
SNS

(i.e. usually it was his nickname or Xくん or Xちゃん）

Is this a common practice in Japanese or something?

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xtYxj.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xtYxj.jpg)

Original Photo

  * <https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNJfOB1UMAAoQa9.jpg>
  * <https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNOYXdrV4AAyoHY.jpg>
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2017-11-09T02:02:27.850
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2017-11-09T08:49:44.667
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question
culture honorifics
Appropriate Honorifics for Fan Letter
When you write to someone it’s a minimum manner to put ‘様’ just below the
addressee’s name on the envelopes.

When you have chance to write to some entities contrary to a person, you
should put ‘御中’ (onchu).

Like below

マル 様

スタックエクスチェンジ 御中
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2017-11-09T15:54:17.453
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answer
We are discussing two separate things here.

**On the envelope** :

It is just customary to use 「～～～～様」 on the envelope. How you address your star
in your imagination or what you call him/her when talking to someone about
him/her is **_irrelevant_** here.

The only mail I have ever received with "[my name] + 君{くん}" was the New Year
cards from my teachers in my elementary school days. Teachers used 「君」 for
boys and 「さん」 for girls. 「様」 would have been unnatural in that relationship
and age difference.

In the case of fan letters, 「様」 would be the only proper honorific choice even
if your star were 30 years younger than you.

**In the actual letter** :

This is altogether another matter from the above. On the letter pad, you can
address your star using whatever honorific you usually call him with --
さん、くん、ちゃん, etc. You can also just use his/her nickname without an honorific as
well.

This is all about Public vs. Private (envelope vs. letter pad). We need to
make a distinction.
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2017-11-10T01:54:36.663
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2017-11-10T03:58:19.373
2017-11-10T03:58:19.373
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answer