The core idea: boxes inside boxes
Picture the address as a set of boxes. The largest is the prefecture. Inside it is the city, inside that the town, and so on down to a single room. A Japanese address simply lists the boxes from the outside in. The postcode goes at the very front, because on its own it already points to the right neighbourhood.
This is the reverse of the order many learners grew up with, where you start at the front door and zoom out. It is the same principle Japanese uses for dates, year before month before day, and for names, family name first: the big frame comes before the detail. Once you think in boxes, the order stops being something to memorise.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| どちらにお住まいですか。 | Dochira ni o-sumai desu ka. | Where do you live? (polite) |
| 埼玉県の川口市です。 | Saitama-ken no Kawaguchi-shi desu. | Kawaguchi, in Saitama Prefecture. |
| 最寄り駅はどこですか。 | Moyori-eki wa doko desu ka. | What's your nearest station? |
| 駅から歩いて十分ぐらいです。 | Eki kara aruite juppun gurai desu. | About ten minutes' walk from the station. |
Every part, in order
Here is the fictional address from the diagram broken into its parts. Not every address uses every level: central Tokyo has a ward instead of a city, and a house has no building name.
| Part | Reading | What it names | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 郵便番号 | yūbin bangō | Seven-digit postcode after the 〒 mark | 〒123-4567 |
| 都道府県 | todōfuken | One of the 47 prefectures | 緑県 |
| 市区町村 | shikuchōson | City, ward, town or village | 桜ヶ丘市 |
| 町名 | chōmei | District or neighbourhood name | 本町 |
| 丁目 | chōme | Numbered section of the district | 1丁目 |
| 番 | ban | Numbered block within the chōme | 2番 |
| 号 | gō | Building number within the block | 3号 |
| 建物名・号室 | tatemono-mei, gōshitsu | Building name and room number | さくらハイツ201号室 |
Jūsho (住所), the word for address, is literally living place, and yūbin bangō is literally mail number. Gōshitsu (号室), literally number room, follows a room number.
The big boxes: prefectures, cities and wards
Japan has 47 prefectures, and their collective name, todōfuken (都道府県), lists their four kinds: to for the metropolis of Tokyo, dō for the circuit of Hokkaidō, fu for the urban prefectures of Osaka and Kyoto, and ken for the other 43. The suffix is part of the name: Tōkyō-to, Ōsaka-fu, Saitama-ken. Hokkaidō already contains its dō.
The next box, shikuchōson (市区町村), is also a list: shi city, ku ward, chō or machi town, son or mura village. Tokyo's 23 special wards stand alone, so a central Tokyo address goes straight from Tōkyō-to to the ward. Large cities such as Yokohama are divided into wards, so their addresses have both, city then ward. In the countryside a gun (郡), district, can come before a town or village.
At the ward office, the clerk checks these big boxes before anything else.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 住所は横浜市の港北区ですね。 | Jūsho wa Yokohama-shi no Kōhoku-ku desu ne. | Your address is in Kōhoku Ward, Yokohama, correct? |
| 北海道の後に県はつけません。 | Hokkaidō no ato ni ken wa tsukemasen. | You don't add ken after Hokkaidō. |
| 東京二十三区 | Tōkyō nijūsan-ku | Tokyo's 23 special wards |
| 郵便番号を入れると、町名まで出てきます。 | Yūbin bangō o ireru to, chōmei made dete kimasu. | If you enter the postcode, it fills in down to the district name. |
The three numbers: chōme, ban and gō
Inside the district come three numbers, usually written with dashes: 1-2-3. They are three more boxes. The chōme (丁目) is a numbered section of the district, the ban (番) a block inside that section, and the gō (号) a building on that block. Chōme joins chō, a traditional unit of town land, with me, the ordinal suffix of futatsu-me, the second one, so itchōme is literally the first section.
The gō numbers are not consecutive, and this surprises everyone. Under the residential address system, jūkyo hyōji (住居表示), the outline of each block is divided into short stretches, numbered clockwise from a set corner, and a building takes the number of the stretch where its entrance meets the road. Large buildings swallow several numbers, so 3 can sit next to 6.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一丁目二番三号 | Itchōme niban sangō | 1-2-3 in full |
| 一の二の三 | Ichi no ni no san | 1-2-3, as usually said aloud |
| 三丁目十二番五号 | Sanchōme jūniban gogō | 3-12-5 in full |
| 一丁目は駅の北側です。 | Itchōme wa eki no kita-gawa desu. | The first chōme is on the north side of the station. |
Saying these numbers clearly on the phone is covered in a separate post on giving your name and address.
Why most streets have no names
An address names areas, so it has no use for streets. Under jūkyo hyōji a block is any area enclosed by roads, railways or rivers, and it is the block that gets the number. The small roads between blocks are simply the gaps. In the map above, only Sakura-dōri has a name, and even that does not appear in the address.
Named roads do exist: main roads called dōri (通り) or kaidō (街道), and numbered national routes. Locals use them to give directions, not to write addresses. Block numbers inside a chōme often snake back and forth from a starting corner, so the practical rule for a newcomer is to find the block first and the building second.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| この道に名前はありますか。 | Kono michi ni namae wa arimasu ka. | Does this road have a name? |
| いや、特にないですね。 | Iya, toku ni nai desu ne. | No, not really. |
| 大通りを渡って、二つ目の角を右です。 | Ōdōri o watatte, futatsu-me no kado o migi desu. | Cross the main road and turn right at the second corner. |
| コンビニの裏の建物です。 | Konbini no ura no tatemono desu. | It's the building behind the convenience store. |
Beyond the basics: banchi, aza and cities with streets
Not every place has been renumbered under jūkyo hyōji. Where it has not, often in rural areas and some suburbs, the number is the land lot, banchi (番地), literally numbered land, taken from the land register. Lots have been split and merged over the years, so you meet numbers like 1234-5, and neighbours can have very different figures. Rural addresses may add ōaza (大字) and aza (字), old village divisions.
Two cities break the pattern. In central Kyoto, a location is often given by the street you are on, the cross street, and a direction: agaru, going up, meaning north; sagaru, going down, meaning south; nishi-iru and higashi-iru, entering west or east. Sapporo numbers its grid from the centre, so Kita 3-jō Nishi 4-chōme is the third row north and the fourth block west. Both still run from big to small.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1234番地の5 | Sen nihyaku sanjūyon banchi no go | Lot 1234, sub-lot 5 |
| 大字 | Ōaza | A large rural division, written before the lot number |
| 河原町通三条下ル | Kawaramachi-dōri Sanjō sagaru | On Kawaramachi Street, south of Sanjō (Kyoto) |
| 北3条西4丁目 | Kita sanjō nishi yonchōme | Third row north, fourth block west (Sapporo) |
Romanised addresses run the other way
Written in the Latin alphabet, the order flips to match Western habits: smallest first, country last. The building and room come first, then the numbers with the district name, then the city, the prefecture and the postcode. The numbers themselves do not flip. 1-2-3 stays 1-2-3, because it is one label, not three separate parts.
Mail from abroad can be addressed entirely in Japanese as long as JAPAN is written clearly at the bottom, and Japanese carriers read the Japanese version fastest. Romanised addresses are for forms in English, bank transfers and websites that refuse kanji. The suffixes are usually kept as they are, Sakuragaoka-shi and Midori-ken, rather than translated.
| Part | Reading | Place in the romanised address |
|---|---|---|
| さくらハイツ201 | Sakura Haitsu 201 | First: building and room |
| 本町1-2-3 | Honchō 1-2-3 | Second, written 1-2-3 Honchō with the numbers unchanged |
| 桜ヶ丘市 | Sakuragaoka-shi | Third: the city |
| 緑県 | Midori-ken | Fourth: the prefecture |
| 郵便番号 | yūbin bangō | Last, then JAPAN on mail from abroad |
Finding a building on foot
Phone maps handle most addresses, but a pin can land on the wrong side of a large block, and the last fifty metres are where the block system helps. Look for small plates on utility poles and walls showing the district, chōme and block number. Find the block, then walk around it, since building numbers follow its outline.
If you are lost, ask at a kōban (交番), a police box. Officers keep detailed local maps and are used to this question. Passers-by will help too, but most know landmarks rather than numbers. Speak politely; officers usually answer in friendly desu and masu.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| すみません、本町一丁目二番はどの辺ですか。 | Sumimasen, Honchō itchōme niban wa dono hen desu ka. | Excuse me, whereabouts is block 2 of Honchō 1-chōme? |
| この辺りは何丁目ですか。 | Kono atari wa nan-chōme desu ka. | Which chōme is this area? |
| この住所に行きたいんですが。 | Kono jūsho ni ikitai n desu ga. | I'm trying to get to this address. |
| 二番はこの道の向こう側ですよ。 | Niban wa kono michi no mukō-gawa desu yo. | Block 2 is on the other side of this road. (officer) |
| 何か目印はありますか。 | Nanika mejirushi wa arimasu ka. | Is there a landmark? |
| 郵便局の隣の白いマンションです。 | Yūbinkyoku no tonari no shiroi manshon desu. | It's the white apartment block next to the post office. |
Common mistakes with Japanese addresses
Writing a Japanese address smallest first. The habit comes from home. Start from the prefecture every time, even on a one-line form.
Leaving out the building name and room number. Learners treat them as extra detail, but without them post and parcels go back to the sender. Copy them exactly as they appear on your lease.
Reading 1-2-3 as house number 123, or reversing it to 3-2-1 in romaji. Both come from treating it like a street number. The three numbers are three boxes, and they keep their order in every script.
Expecting building numbers to rise along a street. The numbers follow the block's outline and skip; find the block first.
Assuming 町 is always read chō. Honchō, Motomachi and Machida all use it, with different readings. Only the local reading is right, so check it in a postcode search or ask.