Address Order
In Japanese, the address is written in order from largest unit to smallest, with the addressee's name last of all. For example, the address of the Tokyo Central Post Office is
- 〒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
- 〒100-8994
Tōkyō-to Chūō-ku Yaesu 1-Chōme 5-ban 3-gō
Tōkyō Chūō Yūbin-kyoku
or
- 〒100-8994
東京都中央区八重洲1-5-3
東京中央郵便局
- 〒100-8994
Tōkyō-to Chūō-ku Yaesu 1-5-3
Tōkyō Chūō Yūbin-kyoku
The order is reversed when writing in roman letters, to better suit Western conventions. The format recommended by Japan Post is:
- Tokyo Central Post Office
5-3, Yaesu 1-Chome
Chuo-ku, Tokyo 100-8994
In this address, Tokyo is the prefecture; Chuo-ku is one of the special wards; Yaesu 1-Chome is the name of the city district; and 5-3 is the city block and building number. In practice it is common for the chōme to be prefixed, as in Japanese, resulting in the somewhat shorter
- Tokyo Central Post Office
1-5-3 Yaesu, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 100-8994.
Note while almost all elements of the address are reverse in roman, connected strings of numbers are treated as units and not reversed. Firstly, the "city block and building number" is a unit, and its digits are not reversed – in this example it is "5-3" in both Japanese and roman, though the Japanese (literally Yaesu 1-Chōme 5-3) is partly reversed to "5-3, Yaesu 1-Chōme" in roman if chōme is separate. Similarly, if the chōme is included, these also form a unit, so in this example the string is 1-5-3 in both Japanese and roman.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Addressing System
Famous quotes containing the words address and/or order:
“Death is hacking away at my address book and party lists.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“A sleeping man holds in a circle around him the thread of the hours, the order of years and of worlds. He consults them instinctively upon awaking and in one second reads in them the point of the earth that he occupies, the time past until his arousal; but their ranks can be mingled or broken.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)