List of regions of Japan

Japan is divided into eight regions. They are not official administrative units, though they have been used by government officials for statistical and other purposes since 1905. They are widely used in, for example, maps, geography textbooks, and weather reports, and many businesses and institutions use their home regions in their names, for example Kinki Nippon Railway, Chūgoku Bank, and Tōhoku University.

Map of the regions of Japan. From northeast to southwest: Hokkaidō (red), Tōhoku (yellow), Kantō (green), Chūbu (cyan), Kansai (blue), Chūgoku (orange), Shikoku (purple) and Kyūshū & Okinawa (grey).
Administrative divisions
of Japan
Prefectural
Prefectures
Sub-prefectural
Municipal
Sub-municipal

Each region groups several of the country's 47 prefectures, except for the region of Hokkaidō, which is the same as Hokkaidō Prefecture. Of the other three main islands of Japan, Shikoku make up one region, Kyūshū is generally combined with Okinawa Prefecture as Kyūshū Region, and the largest island, Honshū is divided into five regions.

Japan has eight High Courts, but their jurisdictions do not correspond to the eight regions (see Judicial system of Japan for details).

Table
RegionPopulationArea in km²[1]Prefectures contained
Hokkaidō5.4 million[2]83,000Hokkaidō
Tōhoku8.91 million[3]67,000Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata
Kantō43.3 million[4]32,000Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, Tochigi, Tōkyō
Chūbu21.4 million[5]67,000Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano,
Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, Yamanashi
Kansai (also known as Kinki)22.5 million[6]33,000Hyōgo, Kyōto, Mie, Nara, Ōsaka, Shiga, Wakayama
Chūgoku7.3 million[7]32,000Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, Yamaguchi
Shikoku3.8 million[8]19,000Ehime, Kagawa, Kōchi, Tokushima
Kyūshū14.5 million[9]44,000Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Kumamoto,
Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Ōita, Okinawa, Saga

Regions and islands

This is a list of Japan's major islands, traditional regions, and subregions, going from northeast to southwest.[10][11] The eight traditional regions are marked in bold.

See also

References
  1. Japan's Regional Megamarkets - Semantic Scholar (PDF)
  2. What special characteristics does Hokkaido have? from Kids Web Japan
  3. What special characteristics does the Tohoku region have? from Kids Web Japan
  4. What special characteristics does the Kanto region have? from Kids Web Japan
  5. What special characteristics does the Chubu region have? from Kids Web Japan
  6. What special characteristics does the Kinki region have? from Kids Web Japan
  7. What special characteristics does the Chugoku region have? from Kids Web Japan
  8. What special characteristics does the Shikoku region have? from Kids Web Japan
  9. What special characteristics does the Kyushu-Okinawa region have? from Kids Web Japan
  10. Regions of Japan on japan-guide.com
  11. Regions of Japan on web-japan.org

Media related to Regions of Japan at Wikimedia Commons

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