Prefectures of Japan

Prefectures of Japan

The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 first-order subnational jurisdictions on a state or provincial level: one "metropolis" (都 to), Tokyo; one "circuit"/territory (道 dō), Hokkaidō; two urban prefectures (府 fu), Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures (県 ken). Prefectures are governmental bodies larger than cities, towns, and villages. The prefecture system was established in 1871 during the Meiji Restoration.

The chief executive of each prefecture is a directly elected governor (ja:知事, chiji). Ordinances and budgets are enacted by a unicameral (single chamber) assembly (議会, gikai) whose elected members serve four-year terms.

Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is further subdivided into cities (市 shi) and districts (郡 gun). Each district is further subdivided into towns (町 chō or machi) and villages (村 son or mura). For example, Hokkaidō has 14 subprefectures which act as branch offices (支庁 shichō) of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have branch offices, which carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital is a merged city-prefecture, it has features of both cities and prefectures.

Historical background

The origins of the Western term prefecture being used to describe Japanese subdivisions date from 15th century Portuguese contact with Japan, whereby the word prefeitura was used to very roughly describe Japanese fiefdoms, in Portuguese the original meaning was more analogous to municipalities than provinces.

Those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family, and despite that those fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized numerous times over, and given legislative governance and oversight, the rough translation stuck.

The current system was established by the Meiji government in July 1871 with the abolition of the han system and establishment of the prefecture system (廃藩置県 haihan-chiken). Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the latter part of 1871, and 47 in 1888. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more political power to prefectures, and installed prefectural governors and parliaments.

In 2003, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states. The plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and cut administrative costs. The Japanese government is also considering a plan by which several groups of prefectures would merge, creating a sub-national administrative division system consisting of between nine and thirteen states, and giving these states more local autonomy than the current prefectures enjoy. As of August 2012, no reorganization has been scheduled.

Types of prefectures

In the Japanese language there are four different terms for prefectures. The prefectures are sometimes collectively referred to as to-dō-fu-ken (都道府県) in Japanese, which is a simple combination of the four terms.

Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones (奉行支配地) around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones (郡代支配地) elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the prefectural system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu (府), while the township-ruled zones and the rest of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken (県). Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, and relegated the other fu to the status of ken. During World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture (see below).

Despite the differences in terminology, there is little functional difference between the four types of prefecture.

Ken

43 of the 47 prefectures are referred to as ken (県). The Classical Chinese character from which this is derived carries a rural or provincial connotation, and an analogous character is used to refer to the counties of China and counties of Taiwan.

Fu (Osaka/Kyoto)

Osaka and Kyoto Prefectures are referred to as fu (府). The Classical Chinese character from which this is derived implies a core urban zone of national importance. Before World War II, different laws applied to fu and ken, but this distinction was abolished after the war, and the two types of prefecture are now functionally the same.

To (Tokyo)

Tokyo is referred to as to (都), which is often translated as "metropolis." The Japanese government still translates Tōkyō-to as "Tokyo Metropolis" in almost all cases, and the government is officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government". However, some people still call Tōkyō-to "Tokyo Prefecture" in English.

Following the abolition of the han system, Tōkyō-fu (an urban prefecture like Kyoto and Osaka) encompassed a number of cities, the largest of which was Tokyo City. Tokyo City was divided into 15 wards. In 1943, Tokyo City was abolished, Tōkyō-fu became Tōkyō-to, and Tokyo's wards became the special wards, local authorities falling directly under the prefecture in hierarchy, each with their own elected assemblies (kugikai) and mayors (kuchō). A number of suburban villages and towns of Tokyo City were changed to wards, bringing the total number of special wards to 35. The reason for this reorganization was to consolidate the administration of the area around the capital by eliminating the extra level of authority in Tokyo. The central government wanted to have a greater degree of control over Tokyo due to Japan's deteriorating position in World War II and the possibility of emergency in the metropolis.

After the war, Japan was forced to decentralize Tokyo again, following the general terms of democratization outlined in the Potsdam Declaration. Many of Tokyo's special governmental characteristics disappeared during this time, and the wards took on an increasingly municipal status in the decades following the surrender. Administratively, today's special wards are almost indistinguishable from other municipalities.

The postwar reforms also changed the map of Tokyo significantly. In 1947, the 35 wards were reorganized into the 23 special wards, because many had died in the bombardments during the war, many survivors had left the city, and many men who had been drafted had not returned.

There are some differences in terminology between Tokyo and other prefectures: police and fire departments are called chō (庁) instead of honbu (本部), for instance. However, the only functional difference between Tōkyō-to and other prefectures is that Tokyo administers wards as well as cities. Today, since the special wards have almost the same degree of independence as Japanese cities, the difference in administration between Tokyo and other prefectures is fairly minor (see 23 special wards for details).

In Osaka, several prominent politicians led by Governor Toru Hashimoto are currently proposing an Osaka Metropolis plan, under which the city of Osaka, and possibly other neighboring cities, would be replaced by special wards similar to Tokyo's.

Dō (Hokkaido)

Hokkaido is referred to as a dō (道) or circuit. This term was originally used to refer to regions of Japan consisting of several provinces (e.g. the Tōkaidō east coast region and Saikaidō west coast region). This was also an historical usage of the character in China.

Hokkaidō, the only remaining dō today, was not one of the original seven dō (it was known as Ezo in the pre-modern era). Its current name is believed to originate from Matsuura Takeshiro, an early Japanese explorer of the island. Since Hokkaidō did not fit into the existing dō classifications, a new dō was created to cover it.

The Meiji government originally classified Hokkaidō as a "Settlement Envoyship" (開拓使 kaitakushi), and later divided the island into three prefectures (Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro). These were consolidated into a single Hokkaidō Department (北海道庁 Hokkaidō-chō) in 1886, at prefectural level but organized more along the lines of a territory. In 1947, the Department was dissolved, and Hokkaidō became a full-fledged prefecture. The -ken suffix was never added to its name, so the -dō suffix came to be understood to mean "prefecture."

When Hokkaidō was incorporated, transportation on the island was still very underdeveloped, so the prefecture was split into several "sub-prefectures" (支庁 shichō) that could fulfill administrative duties of the prefectural government and keep tight control over the developing island. These sub-prefectures still exist today, although they have much less power than they possessed before and during World War II: they now exist primarily to handle paperwork and other bureaucratic functions.

"Hokkaidō Prefecture" is, technically speaking, a redundant term, although it is occasionally used to differentiate the government from the island itself. The government of the prefecture calls itself the "Hokkaidō Government" rather than the "Hokkaidō Prefectural Government".

Lists of prefectures

The prefectures are also often grouped into nine regions (Chihō). Those regions are not formally specified, they do not have elected officials, nor are they corporate bodies. However, the practice of ordering prefectures based on their geographic location is common. From north to south (numbering in ISO 3166-2:JP order), the prefectures of Japan and their commonly associated regions are:

Hokkaidō 1. Hokkaidō Tōhoku 2. Aomori 3. Iwate 4. Miyagi 5. Akita 6. Yamagata 7. Fukushima Kantō 8. Ibaraki 9. Tochigi 10. Gunma 11. Saitama 12. Chiba 13. Tōkyō 14. Kanagawa

Chūbu 15. Niigata 16. Toyama 17. Ishikawa 18. Fukui 19. Yamanashi 20. Nagano 21. Gifu 22. Shizuoka 23. Aichi Kansai 24. Mie 25. Shiga 26. Kyōto 27. Ōsaka 28. Hyōgo 29. Nara 30. Wakayama Chūgoku 31. Tottori 32. Shimane 33. Okayama 34. Hiroshima 35. Yamaguchi

Shikoku 36. Tokushima 37. Kagawa 38. Ehime 39. Kōchi Kyūshū 40. Fukuoka 41. Saga 42. Nagasaki 43. Kumamoto 44. Ōita 45. Miyazaki 46. Kagoshima Okinawa 47. Okinawa

Prefecture	Japanese	Capital	Region	Major Island	Population¹	Area²	Density³	Distr.	Municip.	ISO
Aichi	愛知県	Nagoya	Chūbu	Honshū	7,043,235	5,153.81	1,366	7	54	JP-23
Akita	秋田県	Akita	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,189,215	11,612.11	102	6	25	JP-05
Aomori	青森県	Aomori	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,475,635	9,606.26	154	8	40	JP-02
Chiba	千葉県	Chiba	Kantō	Honshū	5,926,349	5,156.15	1,149	6	54	JP-12
Ehime	愛媛県	Matsuyama	Shikoku	Shikoku	1,493,126	5,676.44	263	7	20	JP-38
Fukui	福井県	Fukui	Chūbu	Honshū	828,960	4,188.76	198	7	17	JP-18
Fukuoka	福岡県	Fukuoka	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	5,015,666	4,971.01	1,009	12	60	JP-40
Fukushima	福島県	Fukushima	Tōhoku	Honshū	2,126,998	13,782.54	154	13	59	JP-07
Gifu	岐阜県	Gifu	Chūbu	Honshū	2,107,687	10,598.18	199	9	42	JP-21
Gunma	群馬県	Maebashi	Kantō	Honshū	2,024,820	6,363.16	318	7	35	JP-10
Hiroshima	広島県	Hiroshima	Chūgoku	Honshū	2,878,949	8,476.95	340	5	23	JP-34
Hokkaido	北海道	Sapporo	Hokkaidō	Hokkaidō	5,682,950	83,452.47	68	66	180	JP-01
Hyōgo	兵庫県	Kobe	Kansai	Honshū	5,550,742	8,392.42	661	8	41	JP-28
Ibaraki	茨城県	Mito	Kantō	Honshū	2,985,424	6,095.62	490	7	44	JP-08
Ishikawa	石川県	Kanazawa	Chūbu	Honshū	1,180,935	4,185.32	282	5	19	JP-17
Iwate	岩手県	Morioka	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,416,198	15,278.51	93	10	33	JP-03
Kagawa	香川県	Takamatsu	Shikoku	Shikoku	1,022,843	1,861.70	549	5	17	JP-37
Kagoshima	鹿児島県	Kagoshima	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,786,214	9,132.42	196	8	43	JP-46
Kanagawa	神奈川県	Yokohama	Kantō	Honshū	8,489,932	2,415.42	3,515	6	33	JP-14
KochiKōchi	高知県	KochiKōchi	Shikoku	Shikoku	813,980	7,104.70	115	6	34	JP-39
Kumamoto	熊本県	Kumamoto	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,859,451	6,908.45	269	9	45	JP-43
Kyoto	京都府	Kyoto	Kansai	Honshū	2,644,331	4,612.93	573	6	26	JP-26
Mie	三重県	Tsu	Kansai	Honshū	1,857,365	5,760.72	322	7	29	JP-24
Miyagi	宮城県	Sendai	Tōhoku	Honshū	2,365,204	7,285.16	325	10	35	JP-04
Miyazaki	宮崎県	Miyazaki	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,170,023	6,684.67	175	6	26	JP-45
Nagano	長野県	Nagano	Chūbu	Honshū	2,214,409	12,598.48	163	14	77	JP-20
Nagasaki	長崎県	Nagasaki	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,516,536	4,092.80	371	4	21	JP-42
Nara	奈良県	Nara	Kansai	Honshū	1,442,862	3,691.09	391	7	39	JP-29
Niigata	新潟県	Niigata	Chūbu	Honshū	2,475,724	12,582.37	197	9	30	JP-15
OitaŌita	大分県	OitaŌita	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,221,128	5,804.24	210	3	18	JP-44
Okayama	岡山県	Okayama	Chūgoku	Honshū	1,950,656	7,008.63	278	10	27	JP-33
Okinawa	沖縄県	Naha	Kyūshū	Ryukyu Islands	1,318,281	2,271.30	580	5	41	JP-47
Osaka	大阪府	Osaka	Kansai	Honshū	8,804,806	1,893.18	4,652	5	43	JP-27
Saga	佐賀県	Saga	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	876,664	2,439.23	359	6	20	JP-41
Saitama	埼玉県	Saitama	Kantō	Honshū	6,938,004	3,767.09	1,827	8	63	JP-11
Shiga	滋賀県	Otsu	Kansai	Honshū	1,342,811	4,017.36	334	3	19	JP-25
Shimane	島根県	Matsue	Chūgoku	Honshū	761,499	6,707.32	114	5	19	JP-32
Shizuoka	静岡県	Shizuoka	Chūbu	Honshū	3,767,427	7,328.61	484	5	35	JP-22
Tochigi	栃木県	Utsunomiya	Kantō	Honshū	2,004,787	6,408.28	313	5	26	JP-09
Tokushima	徳島県	Tokushima	Shikoku	Shikoku	823,997	4,145.26	199	8	24	JP-36
Tokyo	東京都	Shinjuku	Kantō	Honshū	12,059,237	2,187.08	5,514	1	39	JP-13
Tottori	鳥取県	Tottori	Chūgoku	Honshū	613,229	3,507.19	175	5	19	JP-31
Toyama	富山県	Toyama	Chūbu	Honshū	1,120,843	4,247.22	264	2	15	JP-16
Wakayama	和歌山県	Wakayama	Kansai	Honshū	1,069,839	4,725.55	226	6	30	JP-30
Yamagata	山形県	Yamagata	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,244,040	9,323.34	133	8	35	JP-06
Yamaguchi	山口県	Yamaguchi	Chūgoku	Honshū	1,528,107	6,110.76	250	4	19	JP-35
Yamanashi	山梨県	Kofu	Chūbu	Honshū	888,170	4,465.37	199	5	27	JP-19

Notes: ¹ as of 2000; ² km²; ³ per km²

Former prefectures

In Japan

• Anotsu Prefecture merged into Mie
• Chikuma Prefecture merged into Nagano
• Kokura Prefecture merged into Fukuoka

Territories lost after World War II

• To Soviet Union/Russia (chō)
  • Karafuto Prefecture (Sakhalin)
• To Republic of China (Taiwan) (shū and chō)
  • Hōko Prefecture (Penghu)
  • Karenkō Prefecture (Hualien)
  • Shinchiku Prefecture (Hsinchu)
  • Taichū Prefecture (Taichung)
  • Taihoku Prefecture (Taipei)
  • Tainan Prefecture (Tainan)
  • Taitō Prefecture (Taitung)
  • Takao Prefecture (Kaohsiung)
• To North Korea (dō)
  • Heian-hokudō (North Pyongan Province)
  • Heian-nandō (South Pyongan Province)
  • Kōkaidō (Hwanghae Province)
  • Kankyō-hokudo (North Hamgyong Province)
  • Kankyō-nandō (South Hamgyong Province)
  • part of Kōgendō (Kangwon Province)
• To South Korea (dō)
  • Keikidō (Gyeonggi Province)
  • Chūsei-hokudō (North Chungcheong Province)
  • Chūsei-nandō (South Chungcheong Province)
  • Zenra-hokudō (North Jeolla Province)
  • Zenra-nandō (South Jeolla Province)
  • Keishō-hokudō (North Gyeongsang Province)
  • Keishō-nandō (South Gyeongsang Province)
  • part of Kōgendō (Gangwon Province)

See also

• List of Japanese prefectures by population
• List of Japanese prefectures ranked by area
• List of prefectural capitals in Japan
• List of regions in Japan
• ISO 3166-2 codes for Japan
• Government of Japan
• List of governors of Japan

See also

• Administrative division
• Urban area

External links

• National Governors' Association Website (English)
• Map of Japan showing prefectures
• Japanese essay on types of prefectures
• Local Authorities for International Relations (English)
• CityMayors.com profile of prefectures