How to Read a Japanese Address - KHCV

The Japanese address system is based on geographic entities and areas, rather than on a building’s location on a specific street, which is the case in many western countries. In fact, except for Kyoto and Sapporo, an address in Japan will not even include the name of a street.

When written in Japanese characters, addresses are written out in a funnel going from largest geographic entity to the most specific. This rule is reversed when writing the address in the roman alphabet. For example, Real Estate Japan Co. Ltd.’s address in Japanese is written: 〒106-0044東京都港区東麻布1-8-1 東麻布ISビル4F Written in romanized form it is: Higashi Azabu IS Bldg 4F, Higashi Azabu 1-8-1, Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0044 Let’s break this down into the different parts! Part 1: Postal Code The first part is the postal code. The symbol 〒 stands for “postal code”. Postal codes in Japan are in this format: NNN-NNNN (three digits hyphen four digits). Part 2: Prefecture The next part of any address is the municipality. There are 47 different possibilities here because there are 47 so-called prefectures in the country, but more simply, there are only five main combinations: Any prefecture (other than Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or Hokkaido) followed by -県 (ken). For example, 青森県 (Aomori-ken or Aomori Prefecture). So, forty-three of the prefectures would be written this way in an address. Tokyo-To (東京都) As the capital, Tokyo is given its own special suffix of -To (都), which means “metropolis”. Osaka-Fu (大坂府) Osaka is given the special suffix of -Fu (府), which means “urban prefecture”. Kyoto-Fu (京都府) Kyoto is also given the special suffix of -Fu (府), which means “urban prefecture”. Hokkaido (北海道) Hokkaido is a prefecture but is designated as a -Dou (道), which means “circuit”. In Japanese, Japan’s 43 prefectures (which are actually called -ken), the Tokyo metropolis, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hokkaido are collectively referred to as 都道府県 (To-Dou-Fu-Ken). When you are looking at a fully written out address in Japanese, the first section after the postal code always starts with the name of one of the prefectures, Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto and ends with one of these kanji: 都, 道, 府, 県 (To-Dou-Fu-Ken). Real Estate Japan is located in Tokyo. In our address: 〒106-0044東京都港区東麻布1-8-1 東麻布ISビル4F, the prefecture would be 東京都 (Tokyo-to). Part 3: Municipality This is the next division after prefecture. Generally speaking, there are three main possibilities here: [Name] -Shi (市). Shi means “city”. It is a designation that is given to a geographic entity that has sufficient population to earn it. For example, Sapporo, Chiba, Yokohama, Kobe, and Hiroshima are given the -shi suffix. Tokyo-to has 26 -shi within its administrative borders, for example, Chōfu and Hachiōji. [Name] -Ku (区). Ku means “ward”. This is a designation given to sub-sections of cities with sufficiently large populations to be named “designated cities”. For administrative purposes, the 23 Wards of Tokyo are not just called “wards” (区) in Japanese but are named “special wards” (特別区). In common usage, we refer to them as wards, but they are so large in population and so important in administrative terms that the wards are officially “cities”. If you visit your ward office’s website, you’ll see that its official title is “city”.