Hiroshimaculture & etiquette

Hiroshima Prefecture carries an exceptional quantity of designated sediment-disaster warning area, and the reason is fresh: on 20 August 2014, debris flows and slope failures at 166 locations in Asaminami and Asakita wards killed 77 people. That disaster produced a national amendment to the Sediment Disaster Prevention Act, promulgated on 19 November 2014 and in force from 18 January 2015, obliging prefectures to publish the basic-survey results behind a designation rather than sit on them. The practical consequence for you is that the mapping now exists at street level on 土砂災害ポータルひろしま and Hiroshima City's own hazard map. A yellow warning area is a caution; a red special warning area carries actual building restrictions. Look the address up before the second viewing.

Japanese law requires you to register your address at the ward office covering it within fourteen days of moving in. Hiroshima's wards are Naka, Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Asaminami, Asakita, Aki and Saeki, and they are not interchangeable — Asakita alone runs deep into the mountains north of the delta. Registration produces the jūminhyō certificate and triggers your My Number, and without it you cannot enrol in health insurance, open most bank accounts, or complete a phone contract.

Deposit, key money, agency fee, guarantor company fee, fire insurance and the first month. Key money is a gift to the landlord you never see again. Hiroshima is cheaper than any of Japan's three largest cities on the monthly rent and the up-front package is proportionally smaller, but budget for the full stack rather than the best case, and have it liquid in a Japanese account before you start looking.

Hiroshima hosts one of Japan's eight regional immigration bureaux, not a branch office of somebody else's. The Hiroshima Regional Immigration Services Bureau handles residence procedures for Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Okayama, Tottori and Shimane prefectures from here. That is a real quality-of-life difference against a city like Nagasaki, where the local office is a branch of Fukuoka's and the harder cases go two hours up the line. Extensions and status changes still take weeks to a couple of months, so start well before expiry.

Hiroden runs the largest surviving streetcar network in Japan — the delta's braided rivers made a subway expensive and the trams stayed. On 3 August 2025 the new Ekimae-Ōhashi route opened and trams now run up onto the second floor of the rebuilt Hiroshima Station, which had opened as the minamoa complex on 24 March 2025. It is the first arrangement of its kind in Japan and it removed the long-standing walk between the JR concourse and the tram stop. Central Hiroshima is genuinely workable without a car.

Itsukushima Shrine and its sea torii sit on an island reachable by tram-and-ferry or JR-and-ferry from the city in well under an hour, which means residents treat it as a Sunday morning rather than a trip. Since October 2023 there has been a small per-visit island tax collected from visitors alongside the ferry fare. Check the current terms and exemptions before assuming a regular walk up Mount Misen is free.