Address Guidelines for Japan
For information about Japanese addresses, see the Japan Post website: http://www.post.japanpost.jp.
A typical Japanese address looks like this:
北海道札幌市中央区大通西28丁目3番22号
The elements of this address are described in the following table.
Address Element |
Field Name |
Example |
---|---|---|
Prefecture |
StateProvince |
北海道 |
City (Shi) |
County |
札幌市中央区 |
Municipality Subdivision (Oaza) |
City |
大通西 |
City District (Chome) |
Locality |
28丁目 |
Block/lot number |
AddressLine1 |
3番 22号 Block and lot numbers are the most specific address elements in Japan. Japanese addresses typically do not have street names. |
For multiline addresses in Kanji, the general pattern is to enter the postal code on the first line. On the second line, enter the other address elements starting from largest (prefecture) to smallest. The name of the recipient, business, or organization is entered on the third line. For example:
100-8994
東京都中央区八重洲一丁目5番3号
東京中央郵便局
For multiline addresses using Western conventions, the order of address elements is reversed. For example:
Tokyo Central Post Office
5-3, Yaesu 1-Chome
Chuo-ku, Tokyo 100-8994
Japanese addresses can be returned in the character set in which the address was entered. This means that addresses entered in English (Latin character set) are returned in English and Japanese addresses are returned in Japanese (Kanji character set).
Tokyo Shibuya-ku Hiroo 1-1-39
1-1-39 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Handling House Number Matches
In Japan given the irregular shape of street blocks and house numbers not being linear the next closest number does not necessarily mean the closest house geographically. So, instead of returning an address with the next closest house number a result without a house number is returned.
Kyoto Addresses
In the city of Kyoto, the chome (an urban ward or district, AreaName 4) is a name rather than numeric. This makes it more difficult to distinguish the chome from other numeric addreess elements. Consider the following address:
Nishikubo Keihokuakashicho Ukyo-ku Kyoto-shi Kyoto-fu 601-0273
In this address, the data for the matching address contains the address elements:
AN4 (chome): Nishikubo
AN3 (subcity): keihokuakeshichou
AN2 (city): Kyoto-shi Ukyo-ku
There are other examples in which the source data for Kyoto addreesses does not have a chome or for which a chome is present but no subcity (AreaName3) exists.
Sapporo Addresses
Addersses In the city of Sapporo have a unique format than is different than the format for other Japanese cities. Consider the following addresses:
5-26 Minami 2 Jo Nishi 6 Chome Sapporo
This address is interpreted as follows:
Minami 2 Jo -> means 2 blocks south of intersection
Nishi 6 Chome -> means 6 blocks west of intersection
Minami 2 Jo Nishi -> these combine to form the subcity name (AN3)
The directionals used in Sapporo addresses are;
KITA – north
MINAMI – south
NISHI – west
HIGASHI – east
There are many other variations of Sapporo addresses, including variable placement of chome, reversal of chome and jo, and presence/absence and placement of block/lot. These factors can make it difficult to return Sapporo addresses with exact accuracy.
Handling Concatenated Area Names
The AreaName3 (subcity) in addresses can appear as separate words, hyphenated, or concatenated. For example:
ogi machi
ogi-machi
ogimachi
All of these variations can be recognized and the correct candidate is returned.
It is also common for addresses to be entered without spaces between the areanames. For example:
MASHIKO 2070 HAGAGUNMASHIKOMACHI TOCHIGI 3214299
This can be recognized and geocoded. The same address with a space between the AreaName3 (subcity) and AreaName2 (city) is also handled correctly:
MASHIKO 2070 HAGAGUN MASHIKOMACHI TOCHIGI 3214299