皆さん、こんにちは！
Hi all! I hope you are having a great start to your October, which is one of my favorite months (is it strange to have a favorite month?). Here in the United States, stores are starting to sell more fall-themed and Halloween items and houses are slowing starting to display their cute and creepy yard decor.
Anyways, to today’s topic: Japan’s prefectures, or 都道府県 (とどうふけん / todoufuken)! Whenever we talk or hear about a Japanese city or prefecture, it’s common to hear commentary regarding an event, location, food, or other aspect that is unique to that area.
I like to think of prefectures as similar to states in the USA. Each are local governments with their own administration and are subdivisions directly below the national level.
Japan has 47 prefectures that can be further divided into eight regions. They include 43 prefectures proper (県 / けん / ken), two urban prefectures (府 / ふ / fu), one regional prefecture (道 / ど / do), and one that is considered a metropolis (都 / と / to).
For the 43 prefectures proper, “prefecture” is 県 (けん / ken) in Japanese. When using it in context, it follows the name of the prefecture. Example: 愛知県 (あいちけん / Aichi-ken).
The two urban prefectures are Osaka and Kyoto. You add 府 (ふ / fu) at the end, so they are 大阪府 (おおさかふ / Osaka-fu) and 京都府 (きょうとふ / Kyoto-fu).
The regional prefecture is 北海道 (ほっかいどう / Hokkaido), and the metropolis is 東京都 (とうきょうとう / Tokyo-to).
The following is a list of the prefectures of Japan:
- Aichi
- Akita
- Aomori
- Chiba
- Ehime
- Fukui
- Fukuoka
- Fukushima
- Gifu
- Gunma
- Hiroshima
- Hokkaido
- Hyogo
- Ibaraki
- Ishikawa
- Iwate
- Kagawa
- Kagoshima
- Kanagawa
- kochi
- Kumamoto
- Kyoto
- Mie
- Miyagi
- Miyazaki
- Nagano
- Nagasaki
- Nara
- Niigata
- Oita
- Okayama
- Okinawa
- Osaka
- Saga
- Saitama
- Shiga
- Shimane
- Shizuoka
- Tochigi
- Tokushima
- Tokyo
- Tottori
- Toyama
- Wakayama
- Yamagata
- Yamaguchi
- Yamanashi
Learning about each of Japan’s prefectures gives an interesting insight into what makes Japan the country it is. Expect to see some more posts about the prefectures as I explore what makes each of them unique. As I go through them I’ll be linking those posts to the master list above.
じゃあ、またね！
– Ayumi
