this application lets you input either a japanese address (in japanese) and get its corresponding zip code, or vice versa, input a japanese-zip code and get the area which it corresponds to. to be clear, in order to use this application you need to be able to read and write japanese, at least if you want to search from an address to zip code, since you need to be able to input the address in the first place. This app does have a few good things going for it:
1. living in japan, it is common to find an address that while you can recognize the characters involved, you might not be able to read/pronounce them. this is especially common when it comes to place names which can have unusual and rare pronounciations. However, if you input just the zip-code portion of the address, this application will return the corresponding city/ward/division, with the *pronounciations glossed underneath in katakana*. I find this quite useful since before that, it meant looking things up in a big dusty book buried in a corner of the office which took forever, or else bugging one of my coworkers for the pronounciation (and often, when the address is in another prefecture, even they are unsure of the reading)
2. it is possible to input just part of an address (the city and ward name) and more or less get back a list of all the divisions/addresses within that area. I say more or less because it takes a while to scroll through to find the exact area you want as the list can get quite long and hard to read.
3. on occasion, especially when dealing with foreigners living in japan who are not completely familiar with the japanese address system, you might be given addresses that are in a jumbled order, or missing key bits of information distinguishing which portion is the ward name, which is the division name, the city name. By inputting the zip code you can get the address back in the standard post office order, which makes this easier to read and increases the chances of mail getting where it needs to go.
4. In the same vein, foreigners living in japan who cannot read/write japanese will often have their address memorized, or else written down in romaji, but will be unable to tell you the corresponding kanji (japanese characters) for their address. Since you can't write addreses in romaji for any sort of official work, this used to entail my going back to the aforementioned dusty book in the corner of the office trying to figure out the corresponding kanji - now, however, just by inputting the zip code, it is easy to get the correct kanji automatically. (it just dawned on me as i write this review that i suppose one can look this up on the japanese post office website too)
now for the bad:
1. the address lookup is kind of slow. not intolerably slow, but it does take a little bit of time. it's a lot of info to parse though, so i guess it's unavoidable.
2. more frustrating is that scrolling the lists of addresses (like when you look up from a city and ward name only and ask it to list out all the addresses they contain) is very very slow and "jumpy". this can get kind of irritating, so I hope the developer can fix this in the future.
3. The "info" screen is kind of ugly and seems a little un-integrated into the rest of the design asthetic (but this has nothing to do with the usability, it's just a visual thing)
Anyway, that's it! This app is free, which means that if you have a need for it, then you should not hesitate to download it straight away! It does what it promises in a straightforward and effective manner. And if you don't have a need for it - or don't speak japanese - then please refrain from posting negative comments on this application!
4.0
