 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheJapanese addressing system is used to identify a specific location inJapan.
When written inJapanese characters, addresses start with the largest geographical entity and proceed to the most specific one. The Japanese system is complex andidiosyncratic, the product of the natural growth of urban areas, as opposed to the systems used in cities that are laid out as grids and divided into quadrants or districts.
When written inLatin characters, addresses follow the convention used by mostWestern addresses and start with the smallest geographic entity (typically a house number) and proceed to the largest. However, even when translated using Latin characters,Japan Post requires that the address also is written in Japanese to ensure correct delivery.[1]
Japanese addresses begin with the largest division of the country, theprefecture. Most of these are calledken (県), but there are also three other special prefecture designations:to (都) forTokyo,dō (道) forHokkaidō andfu (府) for the two urban prefectures ofOsaka andKyoto.
Following the prefecture is themunicipality. For a large municipality this is thecity (shi, 市). Cities that have a large enough population (greater than 500,000 residents) and are regarded as such by order of theCabinet of Japan are calleddesignated cities, and are subdivided intowards (ku, 区), where in the prefecture ofTokyo, 23 of them are designated as thespecial ward (特別区,tokubetsu-ku)[2][3] with added authority to the mayors. For smaller municipalities, the address includes thedistrict (gun, 郡) followed by thetown (chō ormachi, 町) orvillage (mura orson, 村). In Japan, a city is separate from districts, which contain towns and villages.
For addressing purposes, municipalities may be divided intochō ormachi (two different readings of the character 町, depending on the particular case) and/oraza (字). Despite using the same character as town, themachi here is purely a unit of address, not administration; likewise, there are alsoku address divisions that are not administrative special wards. There are two common schemes:
However, exceptions abound, and the line between the schemes is often blurry as there are no clear delimiters formachi,aza, etc. There are also some municipalities likeRyūgasaki, Ibaraki which do not use any subdivisions.
Below this level, two styles of addressing are possible.
In both styles, since all address elements fromchōme down are numeric, in casual use it is common to form them into a string separated by hyphens or the possessive suffix の (no), resulting in Asakusa 4-5-10 or Asakusa 4の5の10. This renders the two styles indistinguishable, but since each municipality adopts one style or the other, there is no risk of ambiguity. The apartment number may also be appended, resulting in 4-5-10-103.
Street names are seldom used in postal addresses (except inKyoto and some Hokkaidō cities such asSapporo. Seebelow.)
Banchi blocks often have an irregular shape, asbanchi numbers were assigned by order of registration in the older system, meaning that especially in older areas of the city they will not run in a linear order. For this reason, when giving directions to a location, people will often offer cross streets, visual landmarks andsubway stations, such as "at Chūō-dori and Matsuya-dori across the street fromMatsuya and Ginza station" for a store in Tokyo. Many businesses feature maps on their literature and business cards. Signs attached to utility poles often specify the city district name and block number, and detailed block maps of the immediate area are sometimes posted near bus stops and train stations in larger cities.
In addition to the address itself, all locations in Japan have apostal code. After the reform of 1998, this begins with a three-digit number, a hyphen, and a four-digit number, for example 123-4567. Apostal mark, 〒, may precede the code to indicate that the number following is a postal code.
In Japanese, the address is written in order from largest unit to smallest, with the addressee's name last of all. For example, the address of theTōkyō Central Post Office [ja] is
or
The order is reversed when writing inrōmaji. The format recommended byJapan Post[5] is:
In this address, Tokyo is the prefecture;Chiyoda-ku is one of the special wards;Marunouchi 2-Chome is the name of the city district; and 7-2 is the city block and building number. In practice[6] it is common for thechōme to be prefixed, as in Japanese, resulting in the somewhat shorter:
While almost all elements of the address are reversed when written inrōmaji, connected strings of numbers are treated as units and not reversed. Firstly, the "city block and building number" is a unit, and its digits are not reversed – in this example it is "7-2" in both Japanese and roman, though the Japanese (literallyMarunouchi 2-Chōme 7-2) is partly reversed to "7-2, Marunouchi 2-Chōme" in roman ifchōme is separate. Similarly, if thechōme is included, these also form a unit, so in this example the string is 2-7-2 in both Japanese and Western alphabet.
As mentioned above, there are certain areas of Japan that use somewhat unusual address systems. Sometimes the differing system has been incorporated into the official system, as inSapporo, while inKyoto the system is completely different from, but used alongside the official system. Kyoto and Sapporo have addresses based on their streets being laid out in agrid plan, unlike most Japanese cities.
Although the official national addressing system is in use in Kyoto – inChiban style, with ward (区,ku), district (丁目,chōme), and land number (番地,banchi), thechō divisions are very small, numerous, and there is often more than onechō with the same name within a single ward, making the system extremely confusing. As a result, most residents of Kyoto use an unofficial system based instead on street names, a form ofvernacular geography. This system is, however, recognized by the post office and by government agencies.
For added precision, the street-based address can be given, followed by the chō and land number. Sometimes multiple houses share a given land number, in which case the name (either just family name, or full name of resident) must also be specified; this name is generally displayed in front of the house on ahyōsatsu (表札,name plate), often decoratively presented, as are house numbers in other countries.
The system works by naming the intersection of two streets and then indicating if the address is north (上ル,agaru, "above"), south (下ル,sagaru, "below"), east (東入ル,higashi-iru, "enter east"), or west (西入ル,nishi-iru, "enter west") of the intersection. More precisely, the two streets of the intersection are not treated symmetrically: one names the street that the address is on, then gives a nearby cross street, and then specifies the address relative to the cross street. What this means is that a building can have more than one address depending on which cross street intersection is chosen.
For instance, the address ofKyoto Tower is listed on their website as:[7]
Following the postcode, this contains the city and ward, followed by the unofficial address, a space, and then the official address:
This address means "south of the intersection ofKarasuma and Shichijō streets" – more precisely, "on Karasuma, below (south of) Shichijō" (Karasuma runs north–south, while Shichijō is an east–west cross street). The street address may alternatively be given as 烏丸通七条下ル (with street (通,dōri) inserted), indicating clearly that the address ison Karasuma street.
However, the system is flexible and allows for various alternatives, such as:
For less well known buildings, the official address is often given after the informal one, as in the address for the ShinatoraRamen restaurant:
As the initial part of the address is familiar, it is often abbreviated – for example,Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi (京都府京都市, "Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City") can be abbreviated toKyōto-shi (京都市, "Kyoto City"), as in the Kyoto Tower listing. More informally, particularly on return addresses for in-town mail, the city and ward can be abbreviated to the initial character, with a dot or comma to indicate abbreviation – there are only 11wards of Kyoto, so this is easily understood. For example, 京都市Kyōto-shi is abbreviated to 京、Kyō– and 下京区Shimogyō-ku is abbreviated to 下、Shimo–. Combining these (and droppingokurigana), one may abbreviate the address of Kyoto Tower to:
Sapporo's system, though official, differs in structure from regular Japanese addresses. The city-center is divided into quadrants by two intersecting roads, Kita-Ichijo and Soseigawa; blocks are then named based on their distance from this point, and farther from the city center, multiple blocks are included in each. The east–west distance is indicated bychōme (a slightly unorthodox usage ofchōme), while the north–south distance is indicated byjō, which has been incorporated into thechō name.
The address toSapporo JR Tower is:[8]
This address indicates that it is the fifth building on a block located on 5jō north and 2chōme west of the center, named with the actual cardinal names ofkita (north),minami (south),nishi (west), andhigashi (east). The directional names forjō extend for about 7 kilometers to the north–south along the main Soseigawa Dori, but only about 3 kilometers at the most to the east and west; outside of that area,jō have other names, though the starting point of each is still the corner in the direction of the city center, often using landmarks such as theHakodate Main Line or large roads to mark the new numbering.
For example, far in the outskirts is the Sapporo Tachibana Hospital, at:[9]
Building 12 on block 3 of achōme measuring 11jō north and 2chōme west of where the Hakodate Main Line meets Tarukawa Street. Or Toyohira Ward office, at:[10]
Building 1 on block 1 of achōme measuring 6jō south and 10chōme east of where a small street meets theToyohira River. The direction is understood based on the quadrant of the city thejō is considered to be in, which may be off from the actual direction to the city center, depending on the landmark used.
Far-flung and less crowded parts of the city may instead use a standardchō name, rather than a numberedjō, such asMakomanai.
Many areas ofŌita Prefecture including the cities ofŌita andUsuki commonly use an unofficial parallel system known as "administrative wards" (行政区,gyōseiku) or "neighbourhood council names" (自治会名,jichikaimei).[11] While outwardly similar, these addresses end inkumi (組) orku (区):
As the names indicate, these derive from traditional neighbourhood councils. While they continue to be used locally (e.g. school and electoral districts) and may be accepted for mail delivery, they are not considered official addresses, and individual buildings in eachkumi will also have a standardōaza-banchi address.[11] For example, Usuki City Hall, while within Suzaki 4-chome 1-kumi, has the formal address of Usuki 72–1, which may be prepended withōaza [ja] for clarity:
Some cities inIshikawa Prefecture, includingKanazawa andNanao, sometimes usekatakana in theiroha ordering (イ・ロ・ハ・ニ ... ) instead of numbers for blocks. These are calledbu (部). For example, the address of the Kagaya Hotel in Nanao is:[12]
Some cities, including parts ofNagaoka, Niigata, usejikkan (甲・乙・丙 ... ) prefixed to the block number to indicate traditional divisions. These function similarly tochōme and are treated as such in addresses. For example,Yoita police station in Nagaoka has the address:[13]
The current addressing system was established afterWorld War II as a slight modification of the scheme used since theMeiji era.
For historical reasons, names quite frequently conflict. It is typical in Hokkaidō where many place names are identical to those found in the rest of Japan, for example Shin-Hiroshima (literally new Hiroshima) to Hiroshima,[14] largely as the result of the systematic group emigration projects since the late 19th century to Hokkaidō; people from villages acrossmainland Japan dreamt to become wealthy farmers. Historians note that there is also a significant similarity between place names inKansai region and those in northernKyūshū. SeeJapanese place names for more.
Named roads(通り, tōri, dōri) are roads or sections deemed noteworthy and given a name. Unlike in other nations, named roads are not used in addresses but merely for logistic purposes; excepting in the above-mentioned Kyoto system.
