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Nagoya’s Manhole Covers Turn Sewer Infrastructure Into Street Art
Nagoya decorates many of its manhole covers with pictures.
These pictures show things that are special to the city, such as Nagoya Castle, local foods, animals and samurai.
The covers make ordinary sewer equipment look like small pieces of street art.
A museum in Nagoya displays several of them.
One popular design shows an amenbo, which is a water strider that lives in clean water.
People helped choose some designs through competitions.
Other designs are created by artists or selected by city water officials.
Pokémon and baseball players have also appeared on Japanese manhole covers.
Some old covers are now collected and sold as souvenirs.
Nagoya has about 198,000 manholes across an 8,000-kilometre sewer network and nearly two dozen cover designs.
The designs feature local landmarks, food, wildlife, history, pop culture and civic events.
The Meta Water Sewerage Science Museum displays around a dozen colorful manhole designs.
Nagoya’s amenbo water-strider design was selected through a 1992 public competition and became a sewerage mascot.
Some Japanese manhole covers have become collectibles, including Pokémon covers and athlete tributes unveiled in Iwate Prefecture in 2025.
- Who
- Nagoya’s city administration, water and sewerage officials, designers, residents and collectors are involved.
- What
- Japanese municipalities are using decorated manhole covers to showcase local identity, history, landmarks and popular culture.
- Where
- Nagoya, Japan, especially around Nagoya Castle and the Meta Water Sewerage Science Museum; related athlete covers were unveiled in Iwate Prefecture.
- When
- The article cites an amenbo design selected in 1992 and athlete tribute covers unveiled in 2025.
- Why
- The covers express local pride and help improve the public image of sewage systems while turning infrastructure into recognizable community art.
Key facts
- Nagoya manholes
- About 198,000 manholes across an 8,000-kilometre sewer network.
- Design variety
- Nearly two dozen types of manhole covers are used in Nagoya.
- Museum display
- The Meta Water Sewerage Science Museum displays around a dozen manhole designs.
- Amenbo design
- Chosen through a public competition in 1992 to mark 80 years of Nagoya’s sewerage operations.
- Featured imagery
- Designs include Nagoya Castle, miso-nikomi udon, fish, samurai, cityscapes, golden shrimp and Pokémon.
- Athlete covers
- Custom covers honoring Shohei Ohtani, Yusei Kikuchi and Roki Sasaki were unveiled in Iwate Prefecture in 2025.
Quotes
Suzuki Hitoya
Manager of the Meta Water Sewerage Science Museum
“There are places where we ask citizens to submit a design to everyone. And we ask a designer somewhere to make a design at the end of the gap, but the water supply and sewerage bureau is selecting it.”
indianexpress.com
“There are various designs in order to produce the originals of each prefecture. If it’s Nagoya, it’s mackerel. If it’s Mie Prefecture, it’s a maguri and a bird.”
indianexpress.com
Sources
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