The core idea: a station number is an address on one line
Each subway line gets a letter and a colour, and each station on it a two-digit number counting from one end. S04 means the fourth station on the S line. That is all a station number is: an address on one line. It does not replace the station's name, which is still printed beside it.
The map below is fictional: the pink Sakura line, S, and the blue Minato line, M. A trip from Sakurabashi to Minato uses every idea in this article. At the ticket gates, a visitor asks an attendant.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 港まで行きたいんですが。 | Minato made ikitai n desu ga. | I'd like to get to Minato. |
| 中央で港線に乗り換えてください。 | Chūō de Minato-sen ni norikaete kudasai. | Change to the Minato line at Chūō. |
| 中央まで何駅ですか。 | Chūō made nan-eki desu ka. | How many stops is it to Chūō? |
| 二駅です。 | Futa-eki desu. | Two stops. |
| 二つ目の駅です。 | Futatsu-me no eki desu. | It's the second stop. |
Reading the badge: letter, number and colour
On Tokyo's subways the badge is a circle in the line's colour with the letter on top and the number below. Other operators draw it differently, but the three parts are always there. The colour, rain karā, is what you spot from across a concourse. The letter, rosen kigō (路線記号), literally route symbol, is what you can say. The number, eki bangō (駅番号), literally station number, is what you calculate with.
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 駅ナンバリング | eki nanbaringu | The station numbering system as a whole |
| 路線記号 | rosen kigō | The line letter, such as G or M |
| 駅番号 | eki bangō | One station's code, such as G09 |
| ラインカラー | rain karā | The line's colour on maps, signs and often the trains |
| 乗換駅 | norikae-eki | A station where two or more lines meet |
| 方面 | hōmen | Direction, named after stations further along |
Line colours and letters in Tokyo and Osaka
Colours came first. Tokyo's maps already showed each line as a coloured circle, and when numbering arrived in 2004 the letter was placed inside it. The letter comes from the line's name, or from later in the name when two lines would clash: Hanzōmon is Z because H already belonged to Hibiya. Friends giving directions sometimes use the colours.
The table puts a few Tokyo Metro and Osaka Metro lines side by side.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 銀座線はオレンジの線です。 | Ginza-sen wa orenji no sen desu. | The Ginza line is the orange one. |
| 緑の線に乗り換えてね。 | Midori no sen ni norikaete ne. | Change to the green line, OK? |
| 大阪の御堂筋線は赤です。 | Ōsaka no Midōsuji-sen wa aka desu. | Osaka's Midōsuji line is red. |
| Line | Reading | Letter | Colour | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 銀座線 | Ginza-sen | G | Orange | Tokyo Metro |
| 丸ノ内線 | Marunouchi-sen | M | Red | Tokyo Metro |
| 日比谷線 | Hibiya-sen | H | Silver | Tokyo Metro |
| 千代田線 | Chiyoda-sen | C | Green | Tokyo Metro |
| 半蔵門線 | Hanzōmon-sen | Z | Purple | Tokyo Metro |
| 御堂筋線 | Midōsuji-sen | M | Red | Osaka Metro |
| 谷町線 | Tanimachi-sen | T | Purple | Osaka Metro |
| 中央線 | Chūō-sen | C | Green | Osaka Metro |
Two red M lines, two green C lines: letters and colours are unique only within one network. Even inside Tokyo, Toei lines have their own letters, such as S for the Toei Shinjuku line.
Counting stops and finding your direction
Because the numbers rise along a line, two things come free. The first is distance: subtract. The Ginza line runs from Shibuya, G01, to Asakusa, G19, eighteen stops. On Osaka's Midōsuji line, Umeda is M16 and Namba M20, four stops apart.
The second is direction. At G09 heading for G05, you want the train towards the smaller numbers. On Tokyo Metro and Toei the numbers generally rise from west or south towards east or north, which is why Shibuya in the west is G01. Signs name directions by stations further along, hōmen. Which trains skip which stations is a separate question, covered in the guide to train types.
A traveller checks with an attendant on the platform.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 浅草方面はこちらのホームですか。 | Asakusa hōmen wa kochira no hōmu desu ka. | Is this the platform for trains towards Asakusa? |
| いいえ、反対側のホームです。 | Iie, hantai-gawa no hōmu desu. | No, it's the platform on the other side. |
| 渋谷から浅草まで十八駅です。 | Shibuya kara Asakusa made jūhachi-eki desu. | It's eighteen stops from Shibuya to Asakusa. |
| あと何駅で着きますか。 | Ato nan-eki de tsukimasu ka. | How many more stops until we get there? |
| 次の次です。 | Tsugi no tsugi desu. | It's the one after next. |
Transfer signs and announcements: norikae
Norikae (乗り換え) is literally riding and exchanging, and it is the word you follow at a junction. Signs write it as のりかえ or 乗換 beside the badge of the line you are changing to. A transfer station is where the address idea pays off: Chūō in the diagram is S04 and M03 at once, and the digits usually differ because each line counts from its own end.
Between companies you may pass a transfer gate, norikae kaisatsu (乗換改札), and some transfers mean leaving through the ticket gates and walking outside. Announcements use the polite noun o-norikae; as a passenger you use the verb norikaeru.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 次は中央です。 | Tsugi wa Chūō desu. | The next station is Chūō. |
| 港線はお乗り換えです。 | Minato-sen wa o-norikae desu. | Change here for the Minato line. |
| 港線へお乗り換えのお客様は、中央でお降りください。 | Minato-sen e o-norikae no o-kyakusama wa, Chūō de o-ori kudasai. | Passengers changing to the Minato line, please get off at Chūō. |
| 港線の乗り換えはどちらですか。 | Minato-sen no norikae wa dochira desu ka. | Which way is the transfer to the Minato line? |
| 一度改札を出ますか。 | Ichido kaisatsu o demasu ka. | Do I have to go out through the ticket gates? |
| この切符で乗り換えられますか。 | Kono kippu de norikaeraremasu ka. | Can I transfer with this ticket? |
Saying a station number aloud
To be honest, Japanese speakers rarely do. They name the station, Ginza rather than jī zero kyū, and on Tokyo Metro it is the English announcement that reads the numbers. Still, reading a number out is a perfectly good way to ask for help when the name is beyond you. At a station office, a visitor points at the map.
Read the letter by its Japanese name and the digits one at a time. Zero is zero, and you may hear maru, literally circle. Four and seven are safest as yon and nana, because shi and shichi are easily misheard.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| すみません、この駅に行きたいんですが。 | Sumimasen, kono eki ni ikitai n desu ga. | Excuse me, I'd like to go to this station. |
| ジー・ゼロ・キューです。銀座駅ですか。 | Jī zero kyū desu. Ginza-eki desu ka. | It's G09. Is that Ginza station? |
| はい、銀座駅ですね。 | Hai, Ginza-eki desu ne. | Yes, that's Ginza station. |
| 番号で言うと、エス・ゼロ・ヨンです。 | Bangō de iu to, esu zero yon desu. | By its number, it's S04. |
| Letter name | Reading | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| エー | ē | A |
| シー | shī | C |
| ジー | jī | G |
| エイチ | eichi | H |
| エム | emu | M |
| エス | esu | S |
| ゼット | zetto | Z |
Beyond the basics: where the numbering bends
The address idea holds everywhere; what varies is the letter and where the counting starts.
- Osaka Metro starts most lines at 11, not 01, which is why Umeda is M16. The Kita-Osaka Kyūkō line, which runs through onto the Midōsuji line, continues the sequence with M numbers below 11.
- Tokyo's Toei Ōedo line is E rather than O, so that the letter cannot be misread as a zero.
- Tokyo Metro's Marunouchi branch to Hōnanchō is Mb, a lowercase m until 2016, changed so that English announcements could tell them apart.
- Where two lines share track, one station has two numbers with the same digits: Meguro is N01 on the Namboku line and I01 on the Toei Mita line.
- JR East's codes, added around Tokyo in 2016, have two letters: the Yamanote line is JY and Tokyo station JY01. Big junctions also carry airport-style three-letter codes: TYO for Tokyo, SJK for Shinjuku.
- Private railways number their own lines, so through-running stations show two companies' numbers side by side.
Confusable pairs: eki bangō and bansen, norikae and norikoshi
These terms share signs and announcements. A passenger who has ridden too far asks an attendant.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 乗り越してしまいました。 | Norikoshite shimaimashita. | I've ridden past where my ticket covers. |
| 乗り越し精算機はどこですか。 | Norikoshi seisanki wa doko desu ka. | Where is the fare adjustment machine? |
| Term | Reading | What it means | Not to be confused with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 駅番号 | eki bangō | A station's code on its line, such as G09 | Bansen, a track number |
| 番線 | bansen | A track or platform number inside one station, such as 2-bansen | Eki bangō, which names a station |
| 乗り換え | norikae | Changing to another line or train | Norikoshi |
| 乗り越し | norikoshi | Riding past the fare you paid, settled at a fare adjustment machine | Norikae |
| 方面 | hōmen | The general direction, named after major stations ahead | Yuki |
| 行き | yuki | The final stop of this particular train | Hōmen |
| A3出口 | ē-san deguchi | Exit A3 of the station you are in | A station number such as A03 on the Toei Asakusa line |
Norikoshi is literally riding over, past what your ticket covers. Track numbers and exit codes have their own guides; the point here is that each answers a different question: which station, which platform, which way out.
Common mistakes with station numbers
Mixing networks. A letter plus number looks like a universal code, but M is a red line in both Tokyo and Osaka with different routes. Read the code together with the operator's map you are standing beside.
Counting a whole trip in one sum. S02 to M05 is not a subtraction, because the numbers change at the transfer. Count each leg, then add.
Reading 2-bansen as a station. Both are numbers on nearby signs. A number with bansen is a platform here; a letter with a number is a station somewhere on the line.
Expecting every line to start at 01. That is a Tokyo habit; in Osaka most lines begin at 11. Trust subtraction within a line, but check the end stations on the map.
Giving staff only the number. It feels efficient, but Japanese speakers think in names. Add the name if you can, or point at the map: kono eki desu, this station.