Here are the results of my late night rumination on bus in Tokyo.

If the namesake of a bus stop is a landmark (like Roppongi Hills, the new ugliest building in town), the actual stop name in Japanese almost always has a suffix such as -mae, -yoko, minami and iriguchi (in front of, next to, south and causeway to, respectivley).  Thus, the closest bus stop to Roppongi Hills would be Roppongi Hills mae.

For the landmark to be the stop name without a suffix, it should be first recognised as an address.  For example, Akabanebashi is originally a bridge.  The -bashi part is derived from hashi, bridge, whereas Akabane is a placename.  Since it has been standing long enough for the neighbourhood to be referred to as Akabanebashi area (I suspect the bridge itself may be no more), it is a good stop name as well as an address.

When I was riding a bus that announces every stop in four languages, Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, I realised that Chinese has the same practice as Japanese whereas the other two languages do not.  I had been aware that "landmark + suffix" naming practice is funny in English but was surprised by the absence of it in Korean since I vaguely associated the practice with honorific systems, which Korean, as well as Japanese and Chinese, is in possession of.

Before I start launching a doctorate dissertation in two volumes, I would like to check with fellow Agorites who are interested in Asian languages if what I observed in the crowded noisy bus is correct.

Also any suggestions why landmarks are referred to periphratically in Japanese?

Flam

Flaminius,

You mentioned -mae as one of the suffixes designating a bus stop. The others you mentioned must have different connotations of some kind. Could you give at least one example of how each of these would be used?
Any article published in a linguistics journal discussing something like this would do so. Only an abstract might leave it out.

In English, landmark names are usually used for bus stops like the "El Toro bus stop" or "The stop at El Toro" (El Toro = the name of some apartments) or "The QFC stop" (QFC = Quality Food Centers - name of a suprmarket chain) ; Street addresses might also be used like "the stop at 136th".

I can’t think of any synonyms for "bus stop" that would be used in English  even though they are occasionally referred to as "zones" or "shelters" (if they are covered) by our bus drivers. A "zone" includes the bus stop sign and the space within 20 or 30 feet of the sign.
 8)