Japanese Manhole Covers: Pokéfuta, Cards and Routes

Why Japan has painted manhole covers

A manhole cover is called マンホール (manhōru, literally the access shaft, in everyday speech the word for the cover) in Japanese. Below it runs the 下水道 (gesuidō, the sewer system). In Japan these covers are often not grey iron plates but small pictures showing a landmark, the city flower or a local character. Such デザインマンホール (dezain manhōru, design covers) or ご当地マンホール (gotōchi manhōru, covers with a local motif) have become a travel goal of their own.

How it began

Nobody can name one single first design cover, and the sources differ. Nippon.com dates the start to the Okinawa ocean expo of 1975 to 1976, for which covers with a row of small fish replaced geometric patterns. Wikipedia says artistically designed covers have been common since the 1980s. Both fit together: the first pieces are older, and the motifs spread in the decades after.

Who chooses the motifs

The motifs come from the municipalities themselves and show what matters locally: a mascot, a baseball team, a station, a character from the area. The covers are also public relations for a subject you never see otherwise. The organisation 下水道広報プラットホーム (gesuidō kōhō purattohōmu, sewer public relations platform, GKP for short) was founded at the call of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It has issued the collector cards since April 2016, and since then the covers have also been a reason to travel.

Pokéfuta: the Pokémon covers

The best-known collectables are the ポケふた (pokefuta, Pokémon covers). The word combines "Pokémon" with ふた (futa, lid). The first was installed on 20 December 2018 in Ibusuki (Kagoshima Prefecture) and shows Eevee. Most covers show Pokémon that suit the region, often in front of a landmark.

Pokéfuta in Nagoya. Two Magikarp and Komala in front of Nagoya Castle, with the lettering for Nagoya and the Japanese names of the two Pokémon.

How many are there, and where are most of them?

We could not retrieve an official total, because the official Pokéfuta site was unavailable when we tried. Wikipedia gives 404 covers in 40 prefectures (June 2025). An unofficial fan database reached 486 covers in 42 prefectures on 16 October 2026. Treat the numbers as an order of magnitude, as they keep growing. The leaders by fan count:

The same count gives the Tohoku region 128 covers, Kyushu 82, Kinki 62 and Kanto only 33. If you want to hunt Pokéfuta, plan a round trip through the regions rather than a day in Tokyo.

New in 2026: Noto and Gunma

On the Noto Peninsula (Ishikawa), which is being supported in its recovery after the earthquake, six covers were due to go on view from 29 April 2026, in Anamizu, Suzu, Nanao, Wajima, Noto and Shika, with Pokémon such as Snorlax, Sylveon, Gyarados and Greninja. In Gunma, five more follow by the end of November 2026, in Shimonita, Naganohara, Tatebayashi, Numata and Shibukawa, among them Zapdos at Hototogisu Station on the Ikaho ropeway. SoraNews24 gives the locations (see sources).

Pokémon GO

The Pokéfuta are also PokéStops in Pokémon GO. That helps with finding them, because the in-game map shows covers nearby. We have not checked that every single cover is a PokéStop. According to Wikipedia, the game also has digital stamps with the cover motifs that you collect on site.

Manhole Cards: how to collect them

Many design covers have a collector card, the マンホールカード (manhōru kādo, Manhole Card). The GKP has issued them since April 2016. The appeal: the card is free, but you can only get it near the cover, usually at a place the municipality chooses.

The rules

• Cost: the cards are free.
• In person only: you collect the card yourself. There is no postal service, no reservation and no pick-up by someone else. Minato states this explicitly.
• One per person: the handout (配布, haifu) is per head, so two travellers both need to be there.
• Handout point and hours: every card has its own place, usually a tourist information centre, a city office or a waterworks. The hours follow the building.
• Conditions: some cards come with a condition. The Carp-bo card in Hiroshima goes to visitors on a tour of the Ozu rainwater storage facility. For the Kinnikuman card in Osaka, our research found a survey as a condition.
• Stock: when a batch runs out, the handout can pause. Sapporo says so explicitly.

How many cards are there?

Osaka Prefecture reports 1,264 designs as of 1 April 2026, issued by 769 municipalities and 4 other organisations. Series 29 has run since 31 July 2026, but we could not verify how many cards it contains. In Ibaraki, Tsuchiura and Ushiku are part of it. You will find the full list and a search by prefecture on the GKP site.

Examples of handout points

Hours are as shown on the municipalities' pages in November 2026 and can differ during maintenance or bad weather.

Character and anime covers

Alongside the local classics, more and more covers show characters. The overview lists what we could verify.

Sailor Moon in Minato

Minato has seven Sailor Moon covers and a single card (Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask), which is only handed out at the tourist information centre. The covers include Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask in Azabu-Juban, three covers the city calls "Sailor 5" (blue, green, lemon yellow), the five main characters in front of Toyo Eiwa elementary school in Roppongi and two "Sailor 10" covers (cherry blossom near Tokyo Midtown since 23 March 2026, rainbow near Takanawa Gateway since 25 May 2026). The city offers a multilingual map as a PDF, and the route is further down.

Ultraman in Setagaya and Hello Kitty in Tama

Five Ultraman covers stand on the Ultraman shopping street near Soshigaya-Okura (Odakyu line): Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Kanegon and Antlar in one stretch, Baltan Seijin at another spot. The gold-background card is handed out at SANCHA tourist information at Sangenjaya Station. In Tama there are three Hello Kitty covers: two near Tama Center Station (since December 2017) and one in Tama-Chuo Park (a road-bike design, since March 2020, about five minutes' walk from the station according to the city).

Kumamon in Mashiki and Gundam in Shizuoka

Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture, peeks out of ten covers in Mashiki, installed at the end of 2024 on the pavement of the Kumamoto-Takamori prefectural road, the first Kumamon covers anywhere according to the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun. It is the town of Mashiki, not Kumamoto city. A travel magazine lists two Gundam covers in Shizuoka, at Hobby Square and at JR Higashi-Shizuoka Station. That is a secondary source, so check the location before you travel.

Detective Conan in Hokuei

Hokuei in Tottori is the home town of the Conan creator Gosho Aoyama. Conan Street is about 1.4 kilometres long and runs from JR Yura Station (the Conan station) to the Aoyama Gosho Museum, around 20 minutes on foot. Covers with Conan motifs line the street, and two designs are verified: Conan in a Holmes costume and Conan running. We could not verify how many covers there are in total.

New in 2026: MyGO in Ikebukuro and Captain Tsubasa in Furano

Near the west (central) exit of Ikebukuro Station, at Nishi-Ikebukuro 1-1-25, a cover with Takamatsu Tomori from BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! is being installed. It was handed over on 10 June 2026, and installation was planned for late June to mid-July. We have not checked whether it is in place yet. In Furano on Hokkaido, a Captain Tsubasa cover with the cover of Jump Comics volume 20 has been in place since 2025, and the Manhole Card has been available since 31 July 2026. The sources disagree on the handout point, so ask the city of Furano. In Katsushika (Tokyo) we found no Tsubasa cover, only statues.

City classics

Hiroshima: Carp-bo and six coloured motifs

Hiroshima goes for colour. Coloured covers lie in six areas (among them Mazda Stadium, the main station, the port and the castle). The city explains its own rule: on the pavement they are coloured, on the roadway they stay unpainted. Carp-bo, the mascot of the Hiroshima Carp baseball team, lives at the stadium. Besides the standard Carp-bo cover there are three special editions for the championships V7, V8 and V9, one on each stretch.

Carp-bo in Hiroshima. The mascot of the Hiroshima Carp baseball team on a coloured cover.

Hakodate

Hakodate on Hokkaido also has coloured covers, with squid on our photo.

Hakodate, coloured. A coloured cover with squid.

Sapporo and Tokyo

Sapporo's card shows salmon from the Toyohira River and the clock tower, a landmark of the city. It is handed out at the Sewerage Science Museum, which is closed on Mondays.

In the 23 wards of Tokyo you find a uniform design with the city's symbols: cherry blossom (Somei-Yoshino), a ginkgo leaf and a black-headed gull. The model was revised in 2000 and has been installed since 2001. It counts as the standard, and the wards add their own character covers, as with Sailor Moon.

Kanazawa and Matsumoto

The photo from Kanazawa (Ishikawa) shows a lantern and a stream of water, with a small valve cover beside it. Look at small covers like that too, as they are often plainer.

Kanazawa. A cover with a lantern and a water motif, with a smaller valve or hydrant cover beside it.

Matsumoto in Nagano shows colourful patterns on our photo.

Matsumoto. A colourful cover with coloured patterns.

Two day routes in Tokyo

Route 1: the Sailor Moon walk in Minato

1. Collect the card: the tourist information centre (Fuda-no-Tsuji Square, ground floor, Shiba 5-36-4) is open from 9am to 5pm.
2. Shiba: covers on Keio Naka-dori (Shiba 5-20), at the waterworks near Tokyo Tower (Shiba-koen 3-6-7) and at Minato Library (Shiba-koen 3-2-25).
3. Roppongi: Toyo Eiwa elementary school (Roppongi 6-5-14), then Tokyo Midtown (Roppongi 7-4-2).
4. Azabu-Juban: Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask at the entrance of the shopping street (Azabu-Juban 2-1).
5. Detour: Takanawa Gateway (Takanawa 2-21-1) with the newest cover.

The order is a suggestion by district. Take the exact walking routes from the map at the tourist information centre.

Route 2: Ultraman and Hello Kitty in west Tokyo

Plan the west as a day of its own, because both destinations are on the edge of the city and are not close together. In the morning: the card at SANCHA tourist information at Sangenjaya Station (from 10am), then the Ultraman shopping street near Soshigaya-Okura with five covers. In the afternoon: Tama Center and Tama-Chuo Park with the three Hello Kitty covers. Check the exact connections in your timetable app.

Exhibitions and events

• Manhole Summit: the meeting of cover fans has been held since 2014. In 2026 it took place on 17 October in Toda (Saitama).
• Lists for planning: Saitama keeps a list of its design covers by municipality, and the city of Minato offers its map as a multilingual PDF.

Photographing manhole covers

Etiquette

A cover sits in the middle of a street or a pavement, so consideration counts. Minato asks you to check your surroundings for safety and not to block pedestrians. The city asks visitors to avoid dangerous shots, such as from the roadway or lying on the 歩道 (hodō, pavement). If you drive, do not park illegally, and respect nearby facilities. Yokohama points out that wet covers are slippery.

Practical tips

These are rules of thumb, not rules:

• Light: even light, for example on an overcast day, avoids harsh reflections on the metal. With a low sun, raking light brings out the relief.
• Angle: shot straight down, the motif looks undistorted. Add a wide-angle shot with the surroundings so that you can recognise the place later.
• Shadows: watch your own shadow and your camera's, which tends to fall right on the motif.
• Rain: wet covers show richer colours but are slippery.
• Coloured or cast iron: many motifs exist in a coloured and an unpainted version. Hiroshima puts the coloured one on the pavement and the unpainted one on the road. Photograph both, as the comparison is half the fun.

Hakodate, unpainted. The same motif as a plain cast iron cover without colour, photographed in September 2009.

Organising your collection

• Keep a list: tick off the GKP full list (PDF) or keep your own list with place, date and card number.
• Your own map: save every find with its location in a maps app, so you can find more covers nearby later.
• Pokémon GO: open the in-game map in every new city and check which PokéStops are covers.
• Protect the cards: put the Manhole Cards in sleeves or an album. They are thin and bend in a rucksack.

For more on planning your trip, see the planning section and the travel section.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Manhole cover (English): en.wikipedia.org
2. nippon.com: design manholes, Manhole Cards (Japanese): nippon.com
3. Wikipedia: Pokéfuta (English): en.wikipedia.org
4. 9db.jp: Pokéfuta by prefecture, fan database, 16 Oct 2026 (Japanese): 9db.jp
5. SoraNews24: Pokéfuta Noto, 18 Apr 2026 (English): soranews24.com
6. SoraNews24: Pokéfuta Gunma, 27 Oct 2026 (English): soranews24.com
7. Osaka Prefecture: Manhole Cards, as of 1 Apr 2026 (Japanese): pref.osaka.lg.jp
8. GKP: card search and full list (Japanese): gk-p.jp
9. Ibaraki Prefecture: series 29 (Japanese): pref.ibaraki.jp
10. Minato City: Sailor Moon covers and card: city.minato.tokyo.jp
11. Setagaya City: Ultraman (Japanese): city.setagaya.lg.jp
12. GO TOKYO: Hello Kitty in Tama (Japanese): gotokyo.org
13. Kumamoto Nichinichi: Kumamon in Mashiki (Japanese): kumanichi.com
14. Gamepedia Premium: MyGO in Ikebukuro (Japanese): premium.gamepedia.jp
15. Inside Games: Captain Tsubasa, Furano (Japanese): inside-games.jp
16. tabi-mag: Gundam in Shizuoka (Japanese): tabi-mag.jp
17. Mapple: Conan Street, Hokuei (Japanese): mapple.net
18. Hiroshima City: coloured covers, Carp-bo (Japanese): city.hiroshima.lg.jp
19. Sapporo City: Manhole Cards (Japanese): city.sapporo.jp
20. Niji no Gesuidokan (Tokyo): standard cover (Japanese, PDF): nijinogesuidoukan.jp
21. Yokohama City: manhole covers (Japanese): city.yokohama.lg.jp
22. Have a Good Holiday: Manhole Summit 2026 (English): haveagood-holiday.com
23. Saitama Prefecture: covers by municipality (Japanese): pref.saitama.lg.jp
24. Wikimedia Commons, photos: Pierre5018 (Beppu), B1MeiGEM, VKaeru, Mo13Jan, MIKI Yoshihito, そらみみ, Pierre5018 (Matsumoto)