A building address is usually composed of a series of two or three numbers, for example, " 2-4-5 Shinjuku." However, there is no standard rule or consistent method of rendering it in Roman letters. Thus, you may see is represented as:

2-4-5 Shinjuku
or,
Shinjuku 2-4-5
4-5 shinjuku 2-chome
or
4-5 2-chome Shinjuku

Shinjuku is the name of a particular neighborhood; that is, an area comparable to Soho in London, the Centrum in Amsterdam, the French Quarter in New Orleans. It will usually contain about 6-7 subdivisions, called a "chome" (pronounced "cho-may".) It is rare to have more than about 8 chome.

In the northernmost island of Hokkaido, they use a more modern grid system, as does, interestingly enough, the ancient city of Kyoto, borrowing it from the ancient first capital of China, Xi'an.

A chome is often translated as "block" in English, but is really Number 4 in the example represents what is usually called a "block" in English, really refers to a large grouping of buildings which often, but not always, corresponds to a "large city block" simply because of the easy divisions by streets. In the country, however, this may not be the case.

The second number ("4" in the above example) refers to what is called "ban-chi", often translated at "lot" or "lot number" but may contain several buildings or houses, depending on the original size of the lot!

The third number, 5 in the example, is that of the individual house or building. The suffix -go means "number." in Japanese.

Thus, Shinjuku 2-4-5 is Shinjuku 2-chome, 4-banchi, 5-go

In practice, 2-chome does usually adjoin 3-chome, and 4-banchi usually adjoins 5-ban-chi, although after that, the actual building number may be more chronological than hierarchical. Still, the Japanese numbering system is much more orderly than many foreigners think - but it still is important to have a map or landmark to guide you to your destination!

For P.O. Boxes, the English phrase "PO Box" is generally used, usually without punctuation, as in the example. However, PO Boxes are not common. you can usually tell by the suffix "-91" in the Postal Code" which is the designation for PO Boxes.