This is Ireland's postal code system. There's a small level of privacy built in, specific to an address (many taxi drivers ask for this) and 7 digits long. Web forms use it too, so quite common in normal life.
Surprisingly the postal service, An Post, don't use the postal code as their primary way to direct mail (as far as I understand) .
Sorry to say this is not the same. According to [0], the eircode is tied to the address, which Japan has already implemented a 7 digit postal code system. What this new way is trying to do instead is you can get a new digital address, in 7 character alphanumeric character, that uniquely addressed to you. So today you maybe in Tokyo, maybe a year later in Osaka. The postal code of your address changes, but the digital address will still be the same.
[0] https://www.eircode.ie/getting-an-eircode [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Japan
Currently the eircode is specific to the residence, unlike Japans current system.
All that's different with Japans new system is that the code will be transferrable whereas Ireland's is not.
> An Post, don't use the postal code as their primary way to direct mail (as far as I understand) .
I'm not sure how the delivery system works exactly, but I think they use the eircode? Especially in the countryside there often isn't much more than that. At my previous address the street doesn't even have a name; but post addressed to "my name, town, eircode" got delivered.
Also when the eircode was first introduced it really messed up the delivery, which seems to indicate they're using it?
They do use it.
Sorry I have it the wrong way round, there was earlier confusion which led to the below article and my incorrect understanding.
The system uses the eircode and the postman uses the address. (It makes sense a person would use the street address.)
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/an-post-c...
See also this CGP Grey video where he talks about post codes / zip codes in general and mentions Ireland's system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5oDtVAYzk
He's mostly, but not fully correct when talking about the randomness. The first 3 characters match the Dublin postal districts. People living in Dublin 12 start with D12. On one hand, maybe that's useful but on the other hand, it's a way for people to potentially discriminate based on the "good/bad" areas of the city.
If I have to give you D12 as my postal district anyhow, what is the new mechanism for discrimination?
When you say “web forms use it”, is it built into browsers natively, or Irish-based websites add those fields?
Addresses are one of those things that “what programmers frequently get wrong about X”.
Irish-based websites add those fields.
https://www.eircode.ie/business/business-overview