The Japanese Address System: Why Blocks Matter More Than Street Names

Ask for directions in a Western city and the answer usually names a street: turn left on Main Street, it is number 42. In Japan the answer is more likely to mention a station exit, a convenience store, a red mailbox or a particular corner. That is because most Japanese streets do not carry names in the address at all. A building is found by the block it sits in, and the block is found by counting outward from a district.

This guide explains how a Japanese address is built from prefecture down to building, what the numbers called chome, ban and go mean, and why the numbers do not always run in order. It also looks at the famous exceptions in Kyoto and Sapporo, the postal code format, and practical tips for finding a place with maps, local police boxes and a little patience.

Big to Small: How an Address Is Built

A Japanese address runs from the largest unit to the smallest, the reverse of the English order. It begins with the prefecture, then the municipality (a city, a ward, a town or a village), then a district, then the block and building numbers, and the name of the addressee comes last. Prefectures are mostly called ken, but Tokyo is a to, Hokkaido is a do, and Osaka and Kyoto are fu. Large cities are divided into ku (wards), and Tokyo's 23 special wards have extra authority of their own.

When an address is written in the English alphabet, the order flips to the one you know. The Tokyo Central Post Office, for example, is written as 2-7-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8994. The three numbers at the front are the smallest parts of the address, and the rest follows from the small to the large. Learning to read the string from the back to the front helps you picture where you are going: first the ward, then the district, then the block.

Chome, Ban and Go: Reading the Numbers

In many urban areas, a district is divided into chome, which are numbered city districts, such as 2-chome. Within a chome the system uses a block number (ban, from gaiku) and a building number (go). Most of Japan follows a system called jukyo hyoji (residential display), set by a law in 1962, in which a block is numbered and each building within it has its own number. A building that is number 10 in block 5 is written 5-10, and an apartment unit is attached with another hyphen, as in 5-10-103.

Casually, the numbers are strung together with hyphens, as in 4-5-10, or in speech with the word no between them. An older system, used in some rural and older urban areas, numbers by lot (banchi) instead. Some areas use names like oaza and aza for districts rather than chome, and the border between these schemes can be blurry. The practical point is the same everywhere: the numbers narrow your search from a district to a block to a door.

Why the Numbers Do Not Run in Order

A visitor looking for number 12 beside number 11 may well find number 40 instead. In the older lot-based system, numbers were assigned in the order in which the land was registered, not by geography, so they do not run in a neat line.

A famous example shows how unusual this can get. Where several houses share one lot number, a nameplate (hyosatsu) identifies each resident. In Gifu Prefecture's Sagiyama district, 250 houses shared a single address from 1950 until 2019. For a first-time visitor, the lesson is not to expect a continuous numbered line along a road. Instead, look for the block boundaries on the local map and work from there.

Streets Without Names, Maps Without Doubt

Named roads, called tori or dori, do exist, and they are used for logistics, but they are seldom part of the postal address. Directions in everyday life rely on cross streets, landmarks and station exits. That is why Japan is full of detailed local maps: utility-pole signs show the block and number, large block maps stand near stations and bus stops, and many businesses offer maps of their own.

These maps are the backbone of the neighborhood koban (police box). Officers keep detailed maps of the district and can point to an address in seconds. If you have a Japanese address written down, or a map pinned on your phone, a passer-by or an officer can read it quickly. If you only have a business name, mention a landmark nearby as well.

The Kyoto Exception

Kyoto's city center was laid out as a grid long ago, and the city uses a street-based way of giving locations alongside the official system. Because chome in Kyoto are small and names are often repeated within a ward, people rely on the intersections of streets. A location is described by the cross street and by whether it lies north, south, east or west of the intersection. The words are agaru (north of the cross street), sagaru (south), higashi-iru (east) and nishi-iru (west).

Kyoto Tower, for example, is described as Karasuma-Shichijo-sagaru, meaning south of the Karasuma and Shichijo intersection, while its official address uses the district name and lot number. Once you know the grid, the system is very efficient: you walk to a named intersection and take the few steps indicated. Kyoto's eleven wards are also abbreviated to a single character in some writing.

Sapporo and Other Regional Variations

Sapporo in Hokkaido has another unusual system, a grid that radiates from a central point. The city center is divided into quadrants by Kita-Ichijo, a street, and the Soseigawa, a waterway. Blocks are numbered by their distance from that point, using jo for the north-south direction and chome for the east-west direction. Sapporo JR Tower, for example, is at Kita 5-jo Nishi 2-chome, 5-banchi, which tells you it is five blocks north and two blocks west of the center.

Other places have local quirks too. In Oita, neighborhood council names sometimes appear next to the official address, in parts of Ishikawa Prefecture blocks are labeled with katakana in the old iroha order, and in parts of Nagaoka, prefixes from the traditional ten stems work like chome. These variations are the exception, and the standard chome-ban-go system is the one most visitors meet.

Postal Codes and Writing an Address

Since the postal reform of 1998, a Japanese postal code has the form 123-4567, often preceded by the postal mark. The code narrows a delivery down to a small area, and Japan Post requires a Japanese-language version of an address for mail. If you are sending something, write the address in Japanese when possible, and ask your hotel or host to write it for you.

For travelers, the most useful skill is simple. Copy the address from a booking confirmation in Japanese, paste it into a map app, and use the pin as your guide. Business cards and websites for hotels often list both the English and Japanese address. If you are in doubt, ask in the shop next door.

Tips for Visitors

Look at station exit boards, which show the nearby streets and buildings, and choose the exit closest to your destination before you leave the platform. Use a map app with the address written in Japanese or the name of the building, and zoom in on the pin to see the block layout. Note a landmark near your destination, such as a convenience store or a temple, since people will recognize it more easily than a number.

If you get lost, stop in at a koban and show your map or paper address, or ask in a nearby shop. Allow a few extra minutes to find a place in a residential area, where building numbers can jump from one side of a block to the other. Take a photo of your hotel's front entrance and keep the Japanese address handy to show a taxi driver on the way back.