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15.1. How does the Japanese addressing system work?

How the address is composed

The Japanese addressing system is based on areas, subdivided from big to small. There are different types of sub-divisions in different areas, but in general, the country is divided into

to (都), (capital),: for Tokyo,
dou (道), (territory),: for Hokkaido,
fu (府), (metropolis),: for Osaka and Kyoto, and
ken (県) (prefectures),: which covers the rest of the country.

The prefectures (ken) are divided into counties (gun (郡)) or cities (shi (市)). Small cities are generally divided into chou (町) (towns or villages in the dictionary, but maybe "areas" or "neighbourhoods" would be better). Big cities are divided into ku (区). These are generally called "cities" in Tokyo-to, and "wards" elsewhere, for example in Osaka. They used to be called wards in Tokyo also, but in recent years, they have taken to calling themselves "cities" in English.

Wards are divided into chou (町) (though sometimes the name doesn't include the word chou). Sometimes the chou are divided into choume (丁目), which are numbered divisions of a chou. Then the blocks are numbered and, at the lowest level, the building has a number. Finally comes the room or apartment number. Often the name of the apartment house (often called a manshon, from the English word "mansion", see 5.6. What "false friends" are there between Japanese and English?) is included. However, it is not necessary for mail. It is, however, a convenience for visitors who will be asking at the corner tobacco shop or police box for directions.

The buildings within a block are either numbered in the order that they were built, so they jump all around, or numbered in clockwise order around the block. In this clockwise numbering there is sometimes skipping of several numbers for later assignment, where future construction between existing buildings is possible.

Diagram of the composition of the Japanese address system


               YUUBINBANGOU (Zip/Postal Code)
                     ^
                    / \
   ,---------------'   `-----------,
  /      |                         |
 TO    FU (Metropolis)     KEN or DO (Prefecture)
   \              \          /     \
    \              \        /       \
     \              \      /         \
      \----------------------------, |
       \              \  /          \|
        \              \/            V
         \          SHI (City)    GUN (Rural area)
          \             /|           |
           \           / |           |
            \         /  |          /|
             \       /   |_________/ |
              \     /    /           |
           KU (Ward)    /            |
                \      /             |
                 \    /              |
                  \  /               |
                   \/                |
            CHOU=MACHI (Town)     MURA (Village)
                     \               /
                      \             / 
               *CHOUME (District)  /
                               \  / 
                                \/      
                                /\    
                               /  \   
                              /    \  
                 *BANCHI (Block)  *BAN (Block)
                             |      |
                             |      |
                              \   *GO (Building)
                               \   /
                                \ /
                                 V
                                 |
                                 |
                           Building name
                                 |
                                 |
                       *GO (Room/Apt #, etc.)

Writing the address in Japanese

Written in Japanese, an address reads like this:

〒150-2345 東京都渋谷区本町2丁目4-7サニーマンション203
150-2345 Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Hommachi 2 choume, 4-7, Sunny Mansion 203.

The first number is the postal code. (See 1.3.6. What are the names of the Japanese non-kana, non-kanji symbols? for more about the 〒 symbol.) "2" is the subdivision of the "chou." "4" is the block number and "7" is the building number.

Look up a Japanese postcode:

Writing the address in English

Written in English, it would look like this (if you follow the Japan P.O. guidelines):

Sunny Mansion #203
4-7 Hommachi 2-choume
Shibuya-ku, TOKYO 150-2345

However, most folks abbreviate it like this:

2-4-7-203 Hommachi
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-2345

For addresses in large cities (Yokohama, for example) many people omit the larger division (Kanagawa-ken, in the case of Yokohama).

The ken, to, etc., can always be omitted if the postal code is correct. The city name should be capable of omission then too, but that isn't ordinarily done.

There can't be a ku name directly below a fu (since Kyoto and Osaka are both shi), but this is a technicality which the Post Office is sure to overlook. In addition to gun, there are shichou (市町) below Tokyo which contain chou and son (which would normally be under gun). (There are also shichou below Hokkaido, but they contain shi and gun as would be expected.)

As far as the address after shi, ku, machi/chou or mura/son is concerned, trying to reach a consensus on what is what may well be an exercise in hair-splitting.

There's a problem with duplicate terminology where the part about chou (under shi, ku, machi/chou or mura/son) is concerned. There doesn't seem to be a consistent term for these smaller divisions (they seem to be called shigaichi (市外地) in heavily populated areas, and in the country they are often called aza (字), and sometimes an aza is divided into several division names.)

The choume part is not present in many addresses, and in this case the address may either end in banchi (番地) or contain ban and gou. Banchi/ban may be single blocks, parts of blocks, or split into several blocks. Gou may be single buildings, complexes of several buildings, or parts of compound buildings. Some addresses contain the specification mubanchi (無番地) ("no banchi").

Maps

Extremely detailed maps are published for all urban areas. Anyone who can read Japanese may be able to identify any address within a 2 or 3 minute walk. The most detailed bilingual ones are not as good. Of course even a bilingual map as detailed as the Japanese ones would still be very hard for foreigners to use, because the signs are in Japanese only.

The new postal codes

All postal codes now conform to a 7 digit format XXX-XXXX. This was introduced by Japan Post on February 2, 1998. It is theoretically possible to put the postal code followed by the address from choume "downwards", although in some areas the postal code may go over choume boundaries. Before the introduction of the 3-4 system country areas and large city areas had sub-codes, eg. 316-0002 or 150-0001, but now all codes comply. The large area encompassed by 100 (central Tokyo) is now split into up to 9999 sub-areas. A book was put out so people could look up the new code from the old address.

Look up a Japanese postcode:

Acknowledgements

Edited from posts by JimmieJenkins, Norman Diamond, Peter Dunning and Miller to the fj.life.in-japan newsgroup. The correction concerning the new postal codes was contributed by Mike Lyford.

sci.lang.japan FAQ / 15. Miscellaneous

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