Addresses in JP order with apartment floor?

Hi,

I recently sent a small packet to Japan by unregistered Air Mail from the UK. It's been about 2 weeks since then.

I'm wondering if I have the address written wrongly in the Japanese order, mainly the district/block number line.

§‚O‚O‚O|‚O‚O‚O‚O
_“ήμŒ§
μθŽs μθ‹ζ »Žq
‚P|‚P|‚P@‚P‚OF@‚P‚Q‚R
‚β‚ά‚Ύ@‚΅‚ε‚½‚λ‚€
JAPAN

Does this look like it'll end up not being delivered? Should the district/block number line have been the following instead?

‚P|‚P|‚P[‚P‚Q‚R@‚P‚OF@

If it is considered wrong, does anyone know if the Japanese post office would just try to send it back to the return address and long it takes?

But that sample address seems to be missing building name ?

is this what the number suppose to represent?

1-1-1 : street/block number ?

10F : building floor ?

123 : apartment number ?

due to covid pandemic overseas postal service seems to be delayed...

gUsuallyh the house/building is identified by the portion that goes 1-1-1.
So that should get the item to the correct building at least. Now the rest is if the apartment number (I assume)/floor number and the name matchc

From the UK to Japan, it can take a bit longer than two weeks, though.
Is there any way to contact the recipient, like by e-mail?

@guest

Yes, you're correct about the numbers. The address was the format my friend sent me.

@AK

Ah, I sent it as a surprise so don't really want to ask until it's been too long.

I was expecting around 2 weeks too since that's been my experience when importing goods from Japan. Maybe a bit longer with the pandemic and all but, my friend sent me a small packet from Japan too by Air Mail and it only took 5 days so, was beginning to think mine just got lost or disposed of because I didn't get the address in the exact order.

I'm kind of expecting the post office to figure it out even though the floor number should be at the end (I'm guessing). Not sure how important the ordering is after the first 3 district/block/house numbers.

@All

I basically took the liberty of breaking up the address even though I see a lot of 1 line examples when writing the address in Japanese. So something like:

§‚O‚O‚O|‚O‚O‚O‚O
_“ήμŒ§ μθŽs μθ‹ζ »Žq ‚P|‚P|‚P-‚P‚Q‚R@‚P‚OF@‚P‚Q‚R
‚β‚ά‚Ύ@‚΅‚ε‚½‚λ‚€
JAPAN

I thought if the Romaji version can be multi-line then why not when in Japanese...?

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've received packages from overseas with the parts of my Japanese address written in all sorts of different orders/arrangements, and they've all made it to my apartment/office safe and sound. Ultimately, mail is delivered by human beings, and the address you have written includes all the necessary information for whoever's handling it to pass the package on to the next person who's supposed to get it in the delivery. It says Japan, so it'll get shipped to a port in Japan, They'll see "Kanagawa" and pass it off to the prefecture's postal system, who'll see Kawasaki-shi and Kawasaki-ku, so you can expect it to make it that far with no major problems.

However, this part looks kind of confusing to me.
‚P|‚P|‚P@‚P‚OF@‚P‚Q‚R
Like AK said, the 1-1-1 part of the address shows what building the package is supposed to go to. The first 1 is the cho number (basically a subdivision of an individual neighborhood), the second is the block number, and the third 1 is the building number.

u10F 123v is kind of confusing, though, because it seems to be saying "10th floor, room 123." In most Japanese buildings, though, the floor number shows up as the first part of the room number. For instance, Room 212 sounds like it's on the second floor, and Room 510 sounds like it's on the fifth floor. So for Room 123, most people would imagine it's on the first floor, or maybe the 12th floor.

I'm guessing you just used u10F 123v here on the forum as an example, in order to protect the privacy of the person you sent the package to, so this might not be an actual issue with the package you sent. Even if you did write u10F 123v for the actual package, the post office should still be able to get the package to your friend's building, and really there should only be one Room 123 in the whole thing, regardless of what floor it happens to be on.

In the future, if you want some extra piece of mind, you can write out uRoom 123v or u123†ŽΊv in the address to be extra clear. But I've received packages here in Japan from overseas which didn't have my floor number written in the address at all, but made it here with no problems because they had the rest of the address and my room number.

Two weeks isn't time to worry yet. I've sent hundreds of packages from the UK to Japan and vice versa. I've had it take less than five working days, and I've had it take a month. Give it a bit more time.

@guest
Thanks for that detailed explanation!

Yes, I just used random numbers but the first digit of the room number does indeed match the floor number so it would be more like.

‚P|‚P|‚P@‚P‚OF@‚P‚O‚Q‚R

Haven't really learned about Japanese addresses so your explanation cleared up a lot. I had problems calling a taxi because I didn't know what they meant when they asked what block I was in ^^;

@Liz

Ah... Might explain why sometimes I get my imports in a week or so by air mail but sometimes 2 weeks or longer. Thanks for the bit of reassurance =)

Looks fine. Always go from the largest to smallest, so the apartment/property number would be last.
When I post things to my accountant I use the floor number in the address as 5F as they are the only people on that floor. (1-Chome|23|2 5F) It is pretty obvious with address you used.
The "F" should not be an issue, but the format I use for my own address is along the lines of 5-11-5 (1-303) ie building one of two, third floor, apartment #3, but it is pretty obvious for the people doing deliveries here. A slight variation I used when having international items delivered to one of my staff in Tokyo simply separated everything with dashes such as "3-CHOME 11-13-302" as he was in building 13, third floor, apartment #2.
I do not use building name - not necessary.

@JCT

Thanks for the info. I think I will just stick to 1-1-1-1023 if apartment numbers include the floor number in them.

Just a quick update for anyone else who arrive here with the same concerns I had.

The small packet finally reached its destination. Took 3 weeks by air mail but seems the address wasn't an issue after all.

Thanks to everyone who replied =)