Japanese Address Format: How the Block-Lot System Works

Japan is one of the few countries where streets have no names. Instead, land is divided into nested numbered zones. An address like 2-11-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 reads:

• 2 — chōme (丁目): district number within the neighborhood
• 11 — ban (番): block number within the district
• 3 — gō (号): building number within the block
• Ginza — the neighborhood (machi/chō)
• Chuo-ku — the ward (ku), used in large cities
• Tokyo 104-0061 — prefecture and 7-digit postal code

Japanese order vs. international order

Written in Japanese, the address runs largest to smallest: 〒104-0061 東京都中央区銀座2丁目11-3. When romanized for international mail or English-language forms, the order flips to Western convention — building first, prefecture last. Both refer to the same place, and Japan Post delivers mail addressed either way.

Postal codes

Japanese postal codes are seven digits in NNN-NNNN format. The first three digits identify the regional area (1xx for Tokyo, 5xx for Osaka), and the last four narrow to a town block. On forms that reject the hyphen, entering the seven digits without it is accepted.

Filling Japanese addresses into web forms

Most international forms map the pieces like this: the block-lot numbers plus neighborhood go in street address (e.g. "2-11-3 Ginza"), the ward and city go in city (e.g. "Chuo-ku, Tokyo"), the prefecture in state/province, and the 7-digit code in postal code. Our Japan address generator outputs addresses already split into exactly these fields, with genuine ward/postal-code pairings.