JAPANESE ADDRESS READER — reading 東京都新宿区新宿3-1-1 part by part

A Japanese address runs from big to small: postal code, prefecture, city or ward, town, then the block numbers 丁目-番-号, then the building. Western forms want the opposite. This page splits the address you paste into those parts and lines them up in Western order.

What is romanised and what is not

Only the 47 prefectures are turned into roman letters, because that list is fixed. City and town names are shown exactly as written: romanising them safely needs a dictionary, and a wrong guess on a form is worse than kanji. Japan Post delivers addresses written in kanji, and most forms accept them.

The 3-1-1 part

3-1-1 means 3丁目 (chome, a district), 1番 (ban, a block) and 1号 (go, a building). Some addresses write it out in full, some use hyphens; both mean the same place. Hokkaido uses 条 and 丁 for streets, and rural addresses may have 大字 or 字; the pattern reader may split those oddly.

Questions

Is the Western-order line an official romanisation?

No. It is a starting point for forms. For official documents use the romanisation on your residence card or the one your city office gives you.

Do you save the address?

No. Everything happens in your browser and nothing is sent to a server.