Write address in kanji or romaji?

For those of you who write letters to Japan, do you write kanji or romaji or both on the letter? How about on the customs form?

Thanks!

Faye,

Unless you are confident in your writing ability, you should write addresses in romaji. In fact, you may find that the post office in your country actually insists that letters are addressed using Roman letters. I believe this is the case in the USA.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2224.html

When sending mail from countries other than Japan, you MUST write the receiver's city and country as well as your own full address using English alphabet or the letters used in the country you are in. Otherwise, the postmen in your country cannot send the letter to the appropriate city nor send it back to you in case you have the wrong address. Even if you're writing from, say, China, it's better to write the countries in English or French in case the mail gets lost between borders.

Back to the question, when I'm overseas I used to write the other parts all in romaji, but nowadays I write them in kanji. I'm Japanese and fluent in Japanese, btw.

Yes, I am confident about writing every single character :). The reason I asked was because I only have her address in kanji (and didn't want to ask her to write her address in romaji as I wanted to surprise her with a birthday gift).

The post office here (China) allowed me to write her address in kanji both on the envelope and customs form. Thanks for the suggestion Uco, I also added the city and country in English. I wasn't even thinking about it getting lost in another country.

When mailing internationally it is good to put at least the CITY name and Country name in the roman alphabet.

In the case of the US that is required though the address can also be written in Japanese placed elsewhere on the box.

WHILE IN Japan, again as long as the house number and generally speaking postal code is correct everything sort of gets "sorted out" correctly. The postal code contains a wealth of information that you could even write the city name's kanji wrong and as long as the postal code is correct it will get directed to the right area.

What the others are saying is not true. I have sent mail to foreign countries with the address written ENTIRELY in their script (Chinese) and they will send it. With Chinese, it is more reliable that way than writing in Pinyin.

Anyways, you simply need to write JAPAN on it and underline it. That is all the people in your country need to know. Once it gets to Japan, the Japanese will know how to read Japanese (lol), so your mail will get there! Write your return address and USA (or whatever country you are from) in your own language.

Rabbityama,
I don't think your opinion contradict with that of the other posters. Your mail simply didn't get lost in some unexpected place, and you have suggested to write ''JAPAN''.

Faye,
Needless to say, if you want to send it by air, don't forget to write ''AIR MAIL'' in either English or any language China appreciates.