Find Your Ward Office in Japan (区役所)

The ward office is where you register your address, join the health system, and collect the paperwork every other office asks you for. You have 14 days from moving in to register — that deadline is why most people go looking for it.

10 cities · 135 ward offices, every address read from the city’s own site

Pick your city

“Nearest” is the wrong question

In Japan the office you use is fixed by the ward you live in, not by how far away it is. A ward office two stations closer will send you back to your own. Find your ward first — it is the part of your address written before 区 — then open that city below.

What you actually go there for

• Move-in registration (転入届) — within 14 days of arriving at the address. Almost everything else depends on it.
• National Health Insurance and National Pension enrolment
• My Number card collection, and address changes on it
• The certificates other offices demand — 住民票 (residence record) and 印鑑登録 (seal registration)
• Child allowance, and the resident tax bill that starts in your second year

Not the same as the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局)

These two are constantly confused. Naturalisation, company registration and property registration are handled at the Legal Affairs Bureau, not at your ward counter — and its branches are split by address as well.

Osaka · Tokyo · Yokohama · Nagoya · Kyoto · Sapporo · Kobe · Fukuoka

Every address on the linked pages was read from the responsible authority’s own site. Opening hours are deliberately not stored here: they vary by counter and change, so check the official page before you travel.