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Japan is one of the most beautiful countries in the world but not just because of its scenic landscapes or natural wonders – look down towards the sidewalk and you’ll see joyful Japanese manhole covers with incredible designs and artwork.
Japanese Manhole covers (“マンホール蓋’ – Manhōru futa) are colourful and often delightfully designed with intricate patterns creating an urban utopia out of what is usually just a drab sewer cover.
Acting like billboards for creative cities and pretty prefectures, Japanese manhole covers can be miniature works of work including everything from Japanese sumo wrestlers to historic castles and anime characters.
From manhole cover pop-culture to the most beautiful pavement patterns, here is our guide to the cult of Japanese Manhole Covers in 2024:
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Why are Japanese Manhole covers so famous?
Due to the beautiful designs and awesome artwork, Japanese manhole colours are often colourful and miniature artworks, representing different elements of culture from the city they are located in.
Such as their fame and local enthusiasm, there is even a ‘Manhole Cover Association’ / Japanese Society of Manhole Covers’ that seeks to promote and protect these sublime sidewalk masterpieces.
Over 90% of Japan’s prefectures have at least some form of artistic manhole cover and they are very much the calling cards of city councils and local organisations, often becoming a tourist destination in their own right.
It should be noted that not ALL manhole covers are painted or colourful – the vast majority are plain black or grey which makes hunting down the colourful manhole covers in Japanese cities all the more fun.
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The history of Japanese manhole covers / why are there painted Japanese manholes?
Now in their thousands, the origins of joyful Japanese manhole covers began in the 1950s, when the first designed manhole covers appeared with very simple but colourful patterns.
They became more elaborate over the decades when co-existing manufacturing and design processes became easier.
The first manhole cover designs appeared in Tokyo, with simple sakura / cherry blossom graphics – this cherry blossom manhole cover design has since become one of the most iconic and famous manhole covers with many different versions.
In the mid 1980s, Yasutake Kameda (a local official at the Ministry of Construction) conceived of the intricate, artistic versions in 1985, to encourage local provinces to update their out of date sewage and sanitary systems.
Many local Government offices were not keen to comply given the likely costs and upheaval such capital projects would cause (perhaps they thought it was financial ‘sewer-side’….sorry not sorry).
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Yasutake Kameda enthused local provinces to come up with their own designs for manhole covers, which also acted as a kind of national competition to see who could come up with the most beautiful and beloved designs.
These manhole covers in Japan still continue today – the only restrictions in place are they must still meet general safety standards and that the artwork / paint must not become slippery for vehicles or pedestrians in wet weather.
The cult of Japanese manhole covers was born and continues to this day in Japan!
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How many Japanese manhole covers are there?
There are millions of standard manhole covers in Japan but there are said to be over 6,000 different manhole cover designs across Japan (many of which are repeated and appear many times across cities).
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Character manhole covers in Japan
It isn’t just local authorities or classic designs that are featured on manholes – several character manhole covers have been produced and installed featuring characters such as Sailor Moon, Hiyoko Chan, Gundam, Olympic Games characters and even Pokemon manhole covers.
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We were lucky enough to spot a Pokemon manhole cover in Kyoto (pictured below) and other Pokemon manhole covers in Japan have popped up in other cities too like Yokohama and Tokyo – gotta catch ‘em all!
Look out for all the Pokemon manhole covers including ones with Pikachu and Geodude.
Weirdly, such was the success of Pokemon manhole covers in Japan, they subsequently launched a range of merchandise featuring the Pokemon manhole covers on mugs and table coasters!
We’ve even spotted a Godzilla manhole cover in Tokyo (more on this later…) plus this Warsman (ウォーズマン) manhole cover in Osaka, from the Japanese manga series Kinnikuman
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Sporting manhole covers
As well as sumo manhole covers, we’ve spotted quite a few baseball team manhole covers in Japan like this Fukuoka Softbank Hawks Baseball club cover in downtown Fukuoka (featuring the Fukuoka Hawks mascot Honey Hawk).
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Where to find the most beautiful and colourful manhole covers in Japan
We spent several months in Japan and one of the most fun things to do was keep an eye out for colourful manhole cover art on pavements, sidewalks and side alleys.
Some of our favourite and best manhole covers in Japan included:
Sumo wrestler Japanese manhole cover in Ryogoku, Tokyo
We spotted this sumo wrestler manhole cover on the pavement just outside the Ryogoku Kokugikan, the national Japanese sumo wrestling stadium and training centre.
As well as sumo manholes, there pavements are lined with sumo wrestler figurines and statues.
Godzilla Manhole Cover
Godzilla is such an intrinsic part of Japanese culture that it should be no surprise we spotted a Godzilla Japanese manhole cover whilst staying in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
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Osaka Castle
A Japanese manhole cover featuring both sakura (cherry blossom) and a historic castle you say?! The Osaka Castle manhole cover is one of the most beautiful Japanese manhole covers we’ve seen!
Kobe Zoo covers
We found a couple of cute and colourful manhole covers near to Kobe Zoo.
Firefighters fire hydrant cover in Shinbashi, Tokyo
This cute character cover in Tokyo is actually a fire hydrant complete with firemen putting out a fire.
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Japanese manhole cover fans and enthusiasts
‘Drainspotters’ of the world unite – there is such a local and international fanbase for Japanese manhole covers, you’ll find dozens of dedicated accounts on social media.
Often referred to as ‘manholers’, some travellers even make dedicated trips to Japan just to spot and catalogue manhole covers.
There has even been a set of Japanese manhole cover trading cards released by the Japan Sewage Works Association which features artwork from the covers plus geo-location coordinates and the reason for the design.
Some of these manhole cover trading cards in Japan are said to be quite rare and sell online for high money.
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Can I buy Japanese manhole covers?
Although you wouldn’t think you could, original Japanese manhole covers have been known to pop up on Ebay (possibly stolen / lifted – although they do generally weigh just under 100kg a manhole so who knows how much transport costs would be!?)
However in late 2023, Kyoto City Government started selling old Kyoto manhole covers with artwork on them dating back to the late 1970s to early 1990s to members of the public.
Japanese manhole cover prices in Kyoto started at 3,000 Yen (£16 / $20) a manhole – which is really cheap given they usually cost about 60,000 Yen (£315 / $400 to make in the first place).
So if you want a cheap second-hand Japanese manhole cover, check out Kyoto!
But you have to be quick – the Maebashi council in eastern Japan put up a handful of original manhole covers for sale 8 years ago and were flooded with over 200 bids.
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Other random facts and things to know about Japanese manhole covers
- In 2023, Japanese fashion firm Japan Underground.produced a series of T-shirts and tote-bags that included manhole covers from every of the 47 prefectures in Japan – this is tote-ally good news for ‘manholers’ and ‘drainspotters’!
- Such is the popularity and phenomenon of Japanese Manhole covers, there are even museums with Japanese manhole cover collections like the Sewerage Museum in Takanodai, Kodaira City, Tokyo (yes, there IS a sewerage museum!)
- In 2024, Kabosu the Shiba Inu, a famous Shiba dog who has featured on countless Memes had their own ‘dog-walk of fame’ manhole cover installed in Sakura ( Chiba Prefecture) by the Sanranka snack shop
- In 2021, a manhole cover app was launched called Manhole Holy War where citizens were encouraged to report broken or weakened manhole covers after the huge Tokyo earthquake – players were encouraged through a gamification process to photograph manholes and possibly win prize money and rewards. Man oh man(hole)!
- Other manhole merchandise available includes manhole gachapon capsule toys plus on Amazon, you can even buy several different Japanese manhole colouring books.
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