If you?ve ever been to Japan, there?s no way you could have missed them.

I?m talking about the most beautiful manhole covers in the whole wide world!

It?s certainly no exaggeration to claim that Japanese manhole covers are true pieces of art.

You?ll easily notice that every single town has their own design.

And ? as typical for Japan ? it?s featuring something the city is famous for.

How Japanese manhole covers came to life
In fact, this all goes back to a single officer of the construction ministry.

In the 1980s, he suggested that each municipality should be allowed to design their own manhole covers.
At first sight, this might sound nice and considerate.

However, at that time Japan planned to standardize their sewer system.
As this was a costly project, they expected quite the resistance.

With this great idea, they probably wanted to make it ?easier? for citizens to accept high taxes concerning sewage projects.
Luckily for us tourists, the municipalities happily accepted this suggestion and soon a crazy competition among them started for the best design.

Nowadays, there?s even a ?Japan Society of Manhole Covers?.
While the website seems very old-fashioned you can see newly added manhole cover designs.

It?s easy to navigate and fun to browse through all the photos!

Although I?ve been to all 47 prefectures and have seen a few hundred designs, they feature them ALL!!
By ?all? I mean thousands of different designs (and it?s constantly growing).

Osaka City alone ...