Gundam manhole covers across Japan: a fan's guide

Scattered across Japan's towns are drain covers that aren't drain covers at all — they're Gundam manholes (ガンダムマンホール). Each is a real, working cast-iron manhole stamped with a mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam, donated by the franchise to a local town and paired with that place's castle, harbour, rice fields or famous explorer. This guide covers what the project is, how its RX-78-2 and Zeon pairings work, where the covers are, and how to fold a real Gundam manhole hunt into a trip — plus the Japanese you'll use along the way.

What is the Gundam Manhole Project?

The Gundam Manhole Project — branded as G-Manhole — is run by Bandai Namco Group's Gundam Project together with local governments, using the Mobile Suit Gundam intellectual property (Sunrise / Bandai Namco Filmworks). It was announced in 2020, and the very first covers were installed in Odawara, Kanagawa, in August 2021. Odawara was chosen deliberately: it is the hometown of Gundam's creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino.

The idea is close in spirit to Pokéfuta: take a beloved franchise, render it as official municipal manhole art, and use it to draw fans into towns they'd otherwise never visit. The covers are genuine cast-iron manholes set into public streets and plazas — so finding them means walking through real neighbourhoods, harbours and castle grounds rather than a theme park.

How it works: RX-78-2 and Zeon pairs

The signature of the project is the pair. Covers are usually donated to a town two at a time: one showing the RX-78-2 Gundam — the original 1979 hero suit — and one showing a mobile suit of the Principality of Zeon, the antagonist faction (suits like the Z'Gok, Gyan, Dom or Zaku II). Each cover sets its mobile suit against a piece of local scenery, a landmark, or a regional specialty, so the design is unique to the town that received it.

The first pair, in Odawara, is the clearest example of the formula: the RX-78-2 stands with Odawara Castle behind it, while the amphibious Zeon suit MSM-07S Z'Gok holds a fish at the fishing harbour — a nod to the town's coastal life. Later towns follow the same template with their own landmarks, which is half the fun: you're not just collecting robots, you're collecting a town's self-portrait drawn through Gundam.

Because the covers are donated to the municipalities, they become the town's property and part of its public infrastructure. That also means the roster grows whenever a new town comes on board — there is no fixed, neatly published nationwide total, which is why the official site below is the only reliable source for "what exists right now."

Where to find them

The covers below are documented installations. Unit details are fully verified only for the first handful; for the rest, we describe them generically and point you to the official site, because exact mobile-suit line-ups and new sites change faster than any blog can track.

Beyond the first four rows, treat the unit details as a starting point, not gospel: the official site lists the exact mobile suits and the towns that currently have covers. New installations are added regularly, so we link the official source rather than print a fixed nationwide count that goes out of date.

How to collect: the Gundam Navi app and manhole cards

A Gundam manhole hunt is really a sightseeing route in disguise. The covers tend to sit near stations, castles, parks and harbours, so chaining a few together walks you through the best of a town. There are two ways fans turn the walk into a collection:

• Collectible manhole cards. Many participating cities hand out free manhole cards (マンホールカード) — pocket-sized cards picturing the local cover, given out at a nearby tourist office or town hall. They're free, but distribution points and hours vary by town, so confirm locally before you go out of your way.
• The Gundam Navi app. Japan has a "Gundam Navi" app with a GPS check-in feature: visit a real cover, check in on your phone, and collect a digital "souvenir" in the app. Treat this as a fun extra rather than a guaranteed reward system — the app is Japan-oriented, and exactly what you unlock can change.

The Japanese you'll actually use

Hunting manholes is one of the few tourist activities where you end up talking to locals — asking a tourist-office clerk where the Gundam cover is tends to confuse and delight people. The core vocabulary:

Want these to stick? The free JLPT battle quiz drills travel and culture vocabulary like this with spaced repetition.

Want the merch, not just the manhole?

Gundam towns and Japanese hobby shops carry model kits, figures and exclusive goods that often never leave Japan. If you're collecting from overseas, a proxy-buying service ships them worldwide.