Japanese postal barcode

File Format
Name	Japanese postal barcode
Ontology	Physical File Formats Bar codes Japanese postal barcode

The Japanese postal barcode is used in mail sorting for Japan. It encodes an 7-digit postal/zip code plus an optional alphanumeric address code. The symbology allows the coding of the digits 0-9, letters A-Z, and hyphen.

This sort of bar code system is regarded as "four-state" because there are four types of bars, classified by presence of ascenders and/or descenders. This sort of system is transcribable using DAFT notation. These sorts of bar codes are used by a number of countries in their postal systems, though the specific symbologies by which they encode characters can vary.

Utilities

• Barcode generator: Japanese postal bar code

Links

• Japan Post bar code info
• Discussion of the encoding of these bar codes
• Japanese postal/zip code directory