Off To Tokyo! The Japanese Addressing System

When writing a letter or sending a package in the US, you send your mail to an address formatted similarly to the following.

Firstname Lastname

123 ABC Street

Anytown, Anystate 12345

(USA)

A similar addressing system applies to most European countries as well. For example, a French address would read as follows.

Firstname Lastname

123 Rue ABC

12345 Anytown

(France)

So, as the majority of my readers are from the US, you’d probably expect the Japanese addressing system to follow the trend of buildings having addresses on named streets. You probably also expected addresses to be formatted from “lowest to highest” (from name to postal code) as well? Well for me, Japan has surprised me with their unique way of addressing.

In Japan, streets don’t have names, with the exception of some major thoroughfares having ceremonial names (for example, Waseda-Dori near Waseda University in Tokyo). In the US and most Western countries, the streets have names while city blocks don’t. in Japan, the opposite is true; the blocks are numbered while the majority of streets don’t have names. The addressing system in Japan has some additional differences compared to the US. Whereas buildings along streets have ever increasing/decreasing numerical values for addresses (123 comes before 124), in Japan, buildings are numbered from oldest to newest (for example, 1-20). Since buildings are numbered by the order they were built, it’s possible to walk by a row of buildings with addresses such as 1, 6, 5, 2, etc. Within Japan, a Japanese person would format the address in the exact opposite manner as the Western format, from “high to low” (postal code to person’s name) starting with the postal code first, then working down from prefecture, to city (or ward), to district, to district number, block number, and then building number. Finally, you would write the name of the addressee by starting with their last name, then their first name. I have provided an example written in English.

Example of how a Japanese person would send mail within Japan

123-4567

Prefecture, City/Ward, District, (district number)-(block number)-(building number)

Lastname Firstname

(Japan)

 

OR, for a less confusing example,

123-4567

Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba 1-2-3

Lastname Firstname

(Japan)

However, the Japanese post office has adopted the Western addressing format for foreign mail, making it easier for Westerners to send mail to Japan. For example, a letter sent from the United States should be written in English and formatted just like a Western address, albeit with a few minor differences. I have provided an example of how you should send mail to Japan below.

Example of how someone from the US would send mail to Japan

Firstname Lastname

1-2-3 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku

Tokyo 123-4567

(Japan)

Of course, there are some exceptions to these rules for addressing to Kyoto and Sapporo. If you would like to read more about Japanese addressing, click here for the Wikipedia article on the Japanese addressing system.

If you would like to learn more about the Japanese Addressing System, this video provides a great explanation of the Japanese addressing system

Additional Resources:

https://www.odigo.jp/articles/7716-how-to-write-a-japanese-address-for-mailing

EDIT January 15, 2018: I added a featured image to the post. I mean, who wants to read only text?