Address Japanese postcards
Type the address in Japanese; it comes out vertical, in the right places, as a Japanese reader expects.
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Example
New Year cards to three addresses in Japan, printed vertically on Japanese postcards
An English teacher living in Osaka sends New Year cards (nengajo) to her host family, a former school and a friend. Paper: Japanese postcard (100 × 148 mm), honorific 様, house numbers in kanji, 年賀 ticked. She pastes three rows from her spreadsheet (the addresses are made up; 見本 means “sample”).
- Each postcode, with or without 〒 and the hyphen, is printed one digit to a box in the seven red postcode boxes at the top right.
- Digits become kanji one at a time (12 is 一二, 305 is 三〇五) and each hyphen becomes the long vertical stroke. A building name goes in a second column, set a little lower.
- Two names joined by ・ stand side by side, each with its own 様. A row that ends in a company name (株式会社 …) gets 御中 instead.
- Her own postcode, address and name go in the sender fields and are printed small at the bottom left; 年賀 is printed in red under the stamp corner.
| Pasted row | Address, down the right | Name, down the middle |
|---|---|---|
| 530-0001, 大阪府見本市見本町2-14-3, 見本ハイツ305, 田中 誠・恵子 | 大阪府見本市見本町二ー一四ー三, then 見本ハイツ三〇五 in a second column | 田中 誠 様 and 恵子 様, side by side |
| 650-0021, 兵庫県見本市中央区見本通1-8, 株式会社見本英語学院 | 兵庫県見本市中央区見本通一ー八 | 株式会社見本英語学院 御中 (a company, no person) |
| 〒604-8005, 京都府見本市中京区見本町12, 佐藤 美咲 | 京都府見本市中京区見本町一二 | 佐藤 美咲 様 |
postcards-3.pdf: three pages, one card each, 100 × 148 mm. She prints at 100 % (actual size) with a postcard in the manual feed; if the first postcode lands outside the boxes, she nudges it a millimetre and prints the rest. On official New Year postcards (年賀はがき), already marked as New Year mail, leave 年賀 unticked.
How it works
- Paste the addresses in Japanese: postcode, address and name on each line, separated by commas or tabs (rows from a spreadsheet work as they are).
- Choose 様 for a person, 御中 for a company, or 先生 for a teacher or doctor.
- Add your own address, printed at the bottom left.
- Download the PDF and print it on the address side, at 100 % (actual size). If it lands a little off, nudge it and print again.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Japanese postcard addressed?
- Vertically, read top to bottom and right to left: the postcode in the red boxes at the top, the address down the right, the name large down the middle with 様 below it, and your own address and name small at the bottom left.
- Why are the numbers in kanji?
- A vertical address is traditionally written with kanji numbers (丸の内一ー九ー一). Choose digits if you prefer; both are delivered.
- Can it print Western envelopes too?
- Yes: choose DL, C5 or US #10 and the address is printed across, as in Europe and America.
- How do I paste several addresses?
- One row per card — postcode, address, building, name — separated by commas or tabs; rows copied from a spreadsheet paste as they are, and each row becomes one page. Blocks of lines separated by an empty line work too. On Japanese cards and envelopes the name may come first or last in the block: the line with the house number is taken as the address.
- Do I need to type the postcode?
- It is best to. If a Japanese address has none, the postcode is looked up from the first address line (prefecture, city and town) in the postcode data on this site when it can be found, and printed in the boxes. Check it before you print the whole batch.
- Is my address list uploaded?
- No. The PDF is made in your browser.
- Is there a footer on the free plan?
- No. It would be printed on the card, so these pages never carry one.