Japanese Envelope Addressing: Where Every Line Goes, Front and Back

The core idea: the front is theirs, the back is yours

Hold an envelope the way a postal worker does. First comes where it is going, so the address starts at the top right. Then who it is for, so the name follows, in the middle and in the largest writing. Who sent it matters only if something goes wrong, so that goes on the back. Their name is large and gets an honorific; yours is modest and gets none.

Vertical writing, tategaki (縦書き), is still standard for personal and formal letters on the long nagagata (長形) envelope, so learn that layout first. Vertical writing in general, the letter inside, postcards and New Year cards have their own posts. A Japanese friend checking your first attempt will say something like this.

The front of a vertical envelope, zone by zone

Start at the top right. Many nagagata envelopes have seven printed postcode boxes there: three, a dash, then four. Write one Arabic digit per box and leave out the 〒 mark, which the boxes replace. With no boxes, write 〒 and the number at the top right.

The address runs down the right edge from the prefecture to the block numbers. If it needs a second column, break before the building name and start that column a little lower. The name goes down the centre in clearly larger characters, with sama last. The stamp sits at the top left, and markings such as zaichū at the lower left.

UnihongoWriting

郵便ゆうびん番号ばんごう123-4567Postcode 123-4567

Sama, onchū, kakui: choosing the title

The title answers one question: person or organisation? A person gets sama (様), which suits customers, strangers, superiors and friends alike. A company, department or office with no named person gets onchū (御中), literally honourable inside: you address whoever is inside. Once you name a person, the company becomes part of the address, so onchū and sama never appear together.

For a person at a company, the company and department go in a column between the address and the name, and the job title sits small just above the name: eigyō-bu buchō Yamada Hanako sama. Kakui (各位), literally each position, means every one of you. It addresses a group, as in kaiin kakui, to all members, mainly on notices, and never takes sama.

Onchū is a written word only. In the office, people talk about where a letter is going with ate, addressed to.

The back: your details and the 〆 mark

Many nagagata envelopes have a seam down the middle of the back, the tsugime (継ぎ目), literally the joining line. The common modern layout puts your address and name together to its left, the name slightly larger. The older, more formal layout puts the address right of the seam and the name left of it. Both are correct. A date, if you add one, goes small at the top left.

Once the flap is glued, write 〆 across its edge, half on the flap and half on the body. It is read shime, from shimeru, to fasten, and works as a seal: if the envelope is opened, the halves no longer line up. Fū (封) is more formal, kan (緘) most formal, and wedding invitations often use kotobuki (寿), celebration.

UnihongoWriting

封ふうをしたら、〆と書きかきます。Once it is sealed, you write shime.

Numbers in a vertical address

Arabic numerals of two or more digits sit badly in a downward column: they lie on their side or look like separate numbers. So in a vertical address, block and room numbers become kanji. The postcode stays Arabic because its boxes are read by sorting machines.

The counting style uses 十, so twelve is ten-two. The digit style writes each figure in turn with 〇 for zero, so room 201 is two-zero-one. Both appear in block numbers; room numbers use the digit style. The short form of 1-2-3, dashes drawn as short vertical lines, suits personal mail; the full form with chōme, ban and gō looks more careful.

Beyond the basics: horizontal envelopes and business mail

Horizontal writing, yokogaki (横書き), is normal on Western-style envelopes, window envelopes and printed business mail. Only the direction changes: postcode first, the address below it aligned left with Arabic numerals such as 1-2-3, and the name larger in the centre with sama. The stamp moves to the top right; your details go on the back under the flap.

Business mail adds boxed markings at the lower left. Zaichū (在中), literally present inside, names the contents, as in rirekisho zaichū, résumé enclosed, so the envelope reaches the right desk. Shinten (親展), literally opened in person, means only the addressee should open it. A résumé travels flat in a large kakugata (角形) envelope, which counts as non-standard size. At the counter the clerk speaks keigo; desu and masu is enough from you.

Reply envelopes: crossing out yuki

When a company, school or city office wants something back, it often encloses a reply envelope, henshin-yō fūtō (返信用封筒), printed with its own name followed by yuki (行), also read iki, or ate (宛), both meaning to. Printing onchū or sama after its own name would be honouring itself, so adding the respect is left to you.

Draw a double line, nijūsen (二重線), through yuki, down it in vertical writing and across it in horizontal writing. Then write onchū beside it, to the left or just below, or sama if a person is named. A single stroke or a scribble looks careless.

UnihongoWriting

返信へんしん用よう封筒ふうとうを同封どうふういたします。We enclose a reply envelope. (printed in the cover letter)

Common mistakes on Japanese envelopes

Writing the address in English order, room number first. The habit comes from home, where addresses start small. Japanese sorting starts big, and the building name and room number are never optional: without them the carrier stops at the entrance.

Using onchū and sama together. The cause is the feeling that extra respect cannot hurt; here it reads as an error, as the pair below shows.

Posting a reply envelope with yuki still on it. Learners assume printed text is finished, but it is deliberately humble and waiting for your correction.

Arabic numerals lying sideways in a vertical address, usually copied from a phone screen. Convert block and room numbers to kanji.

Adding sama to your own name on the back, or writing it as large as the recipient's. The cause is symmetry with the front. The sender never takes an honorific, and writing yourself smaller is part of the courtesy.