Telephone numbers in Japan
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Country | Japan |
| Continent | Asia |
| Type | closed |
| Typical format | 0112716677 |
| Access codes | |
| Country calling code | +81 |
| International call prefix | 010 |
| Trunk prefix | 0 |
Telephone numbers in Japan consist of an area code, an exchange number, and a subscriber number.
Geographic numbers are nine digits long, including the area code, but not including the leading zero. Consequently, densely populated areas have shorter area codes, while less populated areas have longer area codes. For example:
Area codes increase from north to south; Sapporo in Hokkaidō (the northernmost prefecture) has 11, and Setouchi's 99-73 is far to the south in Kagoshima. When the telephone system was devised, Okinawa was still under U.S. occupation, so when it was returned to Japan in 1972, its telephone numbers were squeezed between Miyazaki (98x) and Kagoshima (99x) and begin with 988, 989, and 980.
During the 1990s, when plans were being drawn up to amalgamate mid-sized cities and towns into larger municipalities, telephone numbering systems were merged in advance. For example,
became:
Many of these towns have in fact refused to merge, leaving callers with more digits to dial when making local calls. This is partially balanced by not having to dial an area code for the neighboring city.
After entering the 2010s, local products and events have begun using names which come from the area code.
0465net (Odawara, Kanagawa)
0428 T-shirt (Ome, Tokyo)
028 Market (Utsunomiya, Tochigi)
028 Machinaka (Inner-City) Wi-Fi (Utsunomiya, Tochigi)
Bar 053 (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka)
...
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