If you are traveling to Japan, or have recently become an expat, then learning how to read, write, and understand Japanese addresses is a must.
Whether you are just using Google Maps to find your way around or you need to write your address on Japanese forms, understanding the Japanese address structure and some kanji will go a long way in making your stay more comfortable.
When you get here, getting around might be trickier than you imagined, as most Japanese cities have very few street signs compared to other countries. Though some cities like Kyoto are laid out in a grid, making your commute a bit easier, places like Tokyo can be confusing. A good rule of thumb is that most major crossings will have street signs, and typing in the name of a crossing into your GPS will help immensely.
If you happen to know the postal code of where you are going, that will be the most useful for plugging into Google Maps or any other mapping service. The postal code areas in Japan are smaller than in other countries, so it will go a long way in narrowing down where you need to go.
Understanding Japanese Geography
The next part of learning how to write a Japanese address is to learn all the words associated with places in Japan. So to understand Japanese addresses, we first need to learn some simple Japanese geography.
“Japan” is written as “日本” in Japanese and is pronounced either nihon or nippon.
Japan is a relatively small country, but it is split into 47 prefectures. These are comparable to states in the US. Like States, each prefecture ranks below the national government and has its laws and regulations.
The 47 prefectures are collectively referred to as the todofuken (都道府県). These four kanji represent the words used for the names of the prefectures.
The first to 都 refers to Tokyo – Tokyo Prefecture is called Tokyo-to (東京都) in Japanese. The do (道) comes from the northernmost prefecture Hokkaido (北海道).
The fu comes from the two western prefectures of Kyoto and Osaka; their prefectures are referred to as Kyoto-fu (京都府) and Osaka-fu (大阪府), respectively.
All other 43 prefectures use the last kanji ken (県), for example, Nagasaki-ken (長崎県) or Okinawa-ken (沖縄県).
After the prefectures, most cities use the word shi (市) meaning “city” like Kyoto-shi (京都市) or Hiroshima-shi (広島市). However, some smaller towns in rural areas will use the kanji machi or (町) or mura (村) meaning “town” or “village.”
Bigger cities like Tokyo are usually broken up into wards or areas, and those use the word ku (区) to label them. Tokyo famously has 23 of these wards, each large enough to be its own city.
The smallest areas in cities like Tokyo are broken up into districts, which usually use the word 丁目 (chome). You might also see cho (町) used for the same purpose. Though this kanji is the same as we saw in “town.” Keep in mind it is pronounced differently.
Lastly, the block number is usually followed by banchi (番地), and a building number followed by go 号.
You would also include the building name and room number for apartment buildings or offices. For instance, if your apartment building was called Sunny Heights and your room number is 3B you would write サーニーハイツ3B.
Important Kanji
When learning the kanji to read, write and understand the Japanese address system, there aren’t too many you need to focus on.
Of course, reading and writing all the kanji for your address will be useful; the basic kanji-to-read addresses aren’t too extensive, so you can focus on these.
Here are the ones we went over so far, and as long as you keep these in mind, you should be able to pick apart any Japanese address:
- Japan – 日本 (nihon, or nippon)
- Prefecture – 都, 道, 府, 県 (to, do, fu, ken)
- City – 市 (shi)
- Town – 町 (machi)
- Ward – 区 (ku)
- District – 丁目 (chome) or 町 (cho)
- Block – 番地(banchi)
- Building – 号 (go)
- Room number – 号室 (goshitsu)
Japanese Zip and Postal Codes
Japanese zip codes are always seven numbers long and are written with three numbers, a dash, and then four numbers, like 150-0012.
The Japanese postal symbol is a T shape with a line above it that looks like this: 〒. You will not only see this in post offices and mail collection boxes, but it is also used before the zip code in a Japanese address to indicate the number.
So using our earlier example, writing the zip code would look like this: 〒150-0012
Japanese Address Structure
Now that you know how to write the zip code and the specific words for Japanese addresses, let’s put it all together and show you what a Japanese address would look like.
Japanese addresses typically start with the zip code and then go from larger areas to smaller ones.
Here are some addresses in different parts of Japan:
- 〒105-0011 東京都港区芝公園４丁目２番地８号
- 〒248-0011 神奈川県鎌倉市扇ガ谷１丁目５−1
- 〒603-8361 京都府京都市北区金閣寺町1
- 〒606-8306 京都市左京区吉田中阿達町1番地東一条館１０１
When writing Japanese addresses in English, we would typically reverse the format. So when written with roman characters, you will see Japanese addresses with the smallest building number first and the zip code at the end.
Here are some examples-
- 4 Chome-2-8 Shibakoen, Minato City, Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture 105-0011
- 1 Chome-5-1 Ogigayatsu, Kamakura-shi, Kanagawa-ken 248-0011
- 1 Kinkakuji-cho, Kita Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture 603-8361
- Higashi Ichijoukan 101, 1 Yoshidanakaadachi-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8306
As you can see, there are small variations of the pattern we learned.
We will often omit the banchi (番地) and go (号) in favor of writing just the numbers with a hyphen.
Sometimes, we omit the name of the prefecture if it is the same as the city or is a well-known one, such as Yokohama or Kanazawa.
The word for city and prefecture can be written in Japanese Roman characters like –shi and –ken. You can also write “city” or “prefecture” after the name.
A good rule of thumb is that if you are writing an address for a Japanese speaker to read, writing the Japanese Roman characters is better.
Also, remember, when you are writing a Japanese address to or from somewhere abroad, always include the word Japan (日本 in Japanese) in large print at the top, so the post office can’t miss it.
Japanese Addressing System on Letters
When writing addresses for Japanese letters and postcards, you must consider whether the envelope or postcard is vertical or horizontal.
Letters that use horizontal addresses will be familiar to Americans, as you write the address and name of the recipient in the middle front of the envelope and the sender on the top left.
The only real difference you need to keep in mind is the name of the addressee should go last after the full address is written.
When the envelope or postcard is vertical, you will write the recipient’s address and name vertically from top to bottom and right to left.
There is usually a box with seven blank digits at the top for you to enter the postal code. The sender’s information is then written on the back of the envelope (the part with the flap). The postal code boxes are usually on the bottom right on the back, and your address and name will go above this in the same top-to-bottom right-to-left pattern as the front.
Writing your address on Japanese forms
If you move to Japan, be prepared to write your address on dozens of forms, from health insurance information at the ward office to doctor’s office intake forms and job contracts.
Most forms where you input your Japanese address will start with the postal code 〒 and then leave a blank with a dash for you to enter the seven-digit number.
Some forms will have a large blank space to write your complete address. Others will have two lines, the first where you enter your prefecture, city, and block information, and the second where you put the building name and apartment number if you have one.
Some forms will also have individual boxes labeled 区 (ku), or 丁目 (chome), etc., where you will fill out each part of your address in the order.
Online forms will often be similar, with the bonus of some automatically filling in most of your address information based on entering just the postal code.
These forms are the most convenient as you only have to enter the block number, building name, or room number if applicable.
Take some time to look at the Japanese addresses above and learn some kanji or practice writing your address in Japanese to get used to it. This practice will be helpful and remove some of the fear next time you read or write a Japanese address.
