The why behind every place

Cities and transportJapan

Why most streets in Japan have no name

Japanese addresses point to a block, not a street. How the system works, and how to find a place in Tokyo without getting lost.

By

7 min read

A narrow street between apartment buildings in Meguro, Tokyo, at sunset
Photo by Monineath Horn on Unsplash

Ask someone in Tokyo which street they live on, and there is a fair chance they won’t have an answer. They aren’t being vague. Across most of Japan, the street has no name. Major avenues do, and so do some shopping streets, but the lanes most people walk down to get home are just the gaps between blocks.

If you grew up with “120 Main Street,” that sounds like a recipe for chaos. In practice the system works. It just starts from a different idea: a Japanese address describes an area, not a line.

Addresses run from big to small

A Japanese address starts with the prefecture and narrows down, layer by layer, to the building. After the city and the neighborhood come three numbers, usually written together with hyphens, like 2-14-5:

  • chōme: a numbered subdivision of the neighborhood;
  • banchi: the block within that subdivision;
  • gō: the building number within the block.

So “2-14-5” means the second subdivision, block 14, building 5. The street never shows up because it doesn’t need to. The block is the unit that matters.

A real example helps. The Tokyo Central Post Office is at Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 2-7-2. Chiyoda is the ward; Marunouchi is the district; 2 is the chōme; 7 is the block; and 2 is the building. In apartment blocks, the unit number goes at the end after another hyphen: 5-10-103 is apartment 103 in building 10 of block 5.

The postal code comes first

Every Japanese address also has a seven-digit postal code, in the format 123-4567, introduced in a 1998 reform. It usually comes before everything else, preceded by the symbol 〒, which signals that the number that follows is a postal code.

Written in Japanese, the order is the one above: largest to smallest. Written in the Latin alphabet for foreigners, it usually flips to something closer to the Western order, starting with the building number. Both formats coexist, and you’ll often see the same address written both ways.

The numbers don’t run the way you’d expect

The order of the numbers is what trips people up. In many areas, buildings are numbered under a system introduced by a 1962 law, which counts entrances going clockwise around the block. Two buildings side by side may have consecutive numbers, but the one across the lane sits on a different block with its own sequence.

Areas that never adopted that system are harder still. There, the number comes from the plot’s entry in the land registry, and neighboring plots may have been registered decades apart. You can end up with number 12 next to number 3, and number 7 two blocks away.

Kyoto does it differently

Kyoto is the best-known exception. Its center was laid out as a grid, modeled on Chinese imperial capitals, and the grid streets have names. Addresses there often name an intersection and tell you which way to go from it:

  • agaru: go up, meaning north;
  • sagaru: go down, south;
  • higashi-iru: head in to the east;
  • nishi-iru: head in to the west.

A Kyoto address can read like walking directions: go to the corner of this street and that one, then head north. For visitors, it is easier to follow than Tokyo’s block numbers.

The odd thing is that this isn’t the official system. On paper, Kyoto also uses the national system of districts and plot numbers. But its official districts are tiny and numerous, and sometimes more than one shares the same name within a single ward. It’s so confusing that residents prefer the street-based system, and the post office and government agencies accept it.

Sapporo, the grid city

The other exception is up north, in Hokkaido. Sapporo’s centre is laid out in a grid, with its own official address system. Two roads that cross in the centre split the city into four quadrants, and each block is named by its distance from that point: the jō counts blocks north–south, and the chōme counts them east–west.

The JR Tower, the complex at the main station, is at Kita 5-jō Nishi 2-chōme: fifth block north, second block west. With a little practice, the address tells you exactly where the building sits on the map.

How people find their way

Before smartphones, people in Japan had three tools, and all of them are still in use.

The first is signage. Utility poles and walls carry small plates with the chōme and banchi of that spot, and near stations you’ll usually find a neighborhood map with the numbered blocks. With the address in hand, you check the plates as you go.

The second is the kōban, the small neighborhood police box. According to Japan’s National Police Agency, there are about 6,300 kōban in the country, plus some 6,300 chūzaisho, residential police posts common in rural areas. Officers know the area by heart, keep detailed maps and spend a good part of the day giving directions. Asking at a kōban is as ordinary as asking at a corner shop.

The third is the hand-drawn map. Shops, restaurants and clinics often put a little map on their website or business card, showing the nearest station exit and the landmarks along the way. Party invitations sometimes come with one too.

What this means when you travel

Your phone will handle most of it, but a few things help:

  • Save the full address with all three numbers. The neighborhood name alone is not enough.
  • Note the nearest station and the exit number. Big Tokyo stations have dozens of exits, and the wrong one can add ten minutes of walking.
  • If GPS drifts between tall buildings, look for the plates on utility poles and compare numbers.
  • When in doubt, the nearest kōban is the best help you’ll find.
  • Keep the postal code with the address. Pasted into a maps app, it gets you close to the right spot.

FAQ

Do streets in Japan have names?

Major avenues and some shopping streets do, but most streets don’t. Japanese addresses identify blocks, not streets.

How do you read a Japanese address?

From largest to smallest: prefecture, city, ward, district and three numbers, such as 2-14-5, giving the chōme, the block and the building.

Why does Kyoto use street names?

Because its centre was laid out in a grid, and its official districts are so small they cause confusion. Residents use intersections and directions, and the post office accepts that format.

Where can I get help finding an address in Japan?

At a kōban, the neighborhood police box. There are about 6,300 of them in the country, and giving directions is part of the officers’ daily routine.

After a few days the system starts to click. You stop looking for the street and start looking for the block, which is how Japanese addresses were designed to be read. On the other side of the world, Costa Rica solved the same problem another way: there, an address starts from a landmark.

Sources

Keep reading