The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 subnational jurisdictions: one "metropolis" (都 to), Tokyo; one "circuit" (道 dō), Hokkaidō; two urban prefectures (府 fu), Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures (県 ken). In Japanese, they are commonly referred to as todōfuken (都道府県^-). Prefectures are governmental bodies larger than cities, towns, and villages.

The chief executive of each prefecture is a directly elected governor (知事, chiji^-). Ordinances and budgets are enacted by a 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.

Historical background

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.^[1] 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.^[2] As of January 2010, no reorganization has been scheduled.

Types of prefectures

To, dō, fu, and ken differ in name only for historical reasons. Since 1947, there is no administrative difference between the four types. Usually, prefectures are called by their name only, without the suffix, except for Hokkaidō. However, the suffix is used when it is necessary to distinguish between the prefecture and a city of the same name. For example, Hiroshima-ken is the Japanese name of the prefecture, and Hiroshima-shi is its largest city.

Fu (Osaka/Kyoto) and Ken

During the Edo period, the bakufu 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 first year of Meiji period, while the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu (府), 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).

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. As a result, the English language does not usually distinguish between fu and ken, calling both simply "prefectures."

Hokkaidō

The term dō (circuit) was originally used to refer to regions of Japan, such as Tōkaidō and Saikaidō, consisting of several provinces. It uses the kanji for "road" and is considered to have been settled by Emperor Temmu.

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 prefecture in 1886. 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".

The largest city and prefectural capital of Hokkaidō is Sapporo, the fifth largest city in Japan. Other major cities include Hakodate.

Tokyo-to

The only to in Japan is Tokyo. Following the abolition of the han system, Tokyo-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, Tokyo-fu became Tokyo-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 (kucho). 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 Tokyo-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).

The Japanese government still translates Tokyo-to as "Tokyo Metropolis" in almost all cases, and the government is officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government." However, some people still call Tokyo-to "Tokyo Prefecture" in English.

Lists of prefectures

List in ISO order

Map of the prefectures of Japan in ISO 3166-2:JP order and the regions of Japan.

The prefectures are also often grouped into regions. 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:

List in alphabetical order

Prefecture	Japanese	Capital	Region	Island	Population¹	Area²	Density³	Distr.	Municip.	ISO
Aichi	愛知県	Nagoya	Chūbu	Honshū	7,043,235	5,153.81	1,366	15	88	JP-23
Akita	秋田県	Akita	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,189,215	11,612.11	102	8	29	JP-05
Aomori	青森県	Aomori	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,475,635	9,606.26	154	8	61	JP-02
Chiba	千葉県	Chiba	Kantō	Honshū	5,926,349	5,156.15	1,149	9	80	JP-12
Ehime	愛媛県	Matsuyama	Shikoku	Shikoku	1,493,126	5,676.44	263	7	28	JP-38
Fukui	福井県	Fukui	Chūbu	Honshū	828,960	4,188.76	198	10	29	JP-18
Fukuoka	福岡県	Fukuoka	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	5,015,666	4,971.01	1,009	17	91	JP-40
Fukushima	福島県	Fukushima	Tōhoku	Honshū	2,126,998	13,782.54	154	14	85	JP-07
Gifu	岐阜県	Gifu	Chūbu	Honshū	2,107,687	10,598.18	199	11	49	JP-21
Gunma	群馬県	Maebashi	Kantō	Honshū	2,024,820	6,363.16	318	12	61	JP-10
Hiroshima	広島県	Hiroshima	Chūgoku	Honshū	2,878,949	8,476.95	340	10	37	JP-34
Hokkaidō	北海道	Sapporo	Hokkaidō	Hokkaidō	5,682,950	83,452.47	68	66	207	JP-01
Hyōgo	兵庫県	Kobe	Kansai	Honshū	5,550,742	8,392.42	661	13	60	JP-28
Ibaraki	茨城県	Mito	Kantō	Honshū	2,985,424	6,095.62	490	13	61	JP-08
Ishikawa	石川県	Kanazawa	Chūbu	Honshū	1,180,935	4,185.32	282	7	25	JP-17
Iwate	岩手県	Morioka	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,416,198	15,278.51	93	12	46	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	11	49	JP-46
Kanagawa	神奈川県	Yokohama	Kantō	Honshū	8,489,932	2,415.42	3,515	7	35	JP-14
Kōchi	高知県	Kōchi	Shikoku	Shikoku	813,980	7,104.70	115	6	35	JP-39
Kumamoto	熊本県	Kumamoto	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,859,451	6,908.45	269	10	48	JP-43
Kyoto	京都府	Kyoto	Kansai	Honshū	2,644,331	4,612.93	573	6	28	JP-26
Mie	三重県	Tsu	Kansai	Honshū	1,857,365	5760.72	322	7	29	JP-24
Miyagi	宮城県	Sendai	Tōhoku	Honshū	2,365,204	7,285.16	325	10	36	JP-04
Miyazaki	宮崎県	Miyazaki	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,170,023	6,684.67	175	8	30	JP-45
Nagano	長野県	Nagano	Chūbu	Honshū	2,214,409	12,598.48	163	16	120	JP-20
Nagasaki	長崎県	Nagasaki	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,516,536	4,092.80	371	9	79	JP-42
Nara	奈良県	Nara	Kansai	Honshū	1,442,862	3,691.09	391	8	47	JP-29
Niigata	新潟県	Niigata	Chūbu	Honshū	2,475,724	12,582.37	197	16	111	JP-15
Ōita	大分県	Ōita	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	1,221,128	5,804.24	210	12	58	JP-44
Okayama	岡山県	Okayama	Chūgoku	Honshū	1,950,656	7,008.63	278	18	78	JP-33
Okinawa	沖縄県	Naha	Kyūshū	Ryūkyū 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	44	JP-27
Saga	佐賀県	Saga	Kyūshū	Kyūshū	876,664	2,439.23	359	8	49	JP-41
Saitama	埼玉県	Saitama	Kantō	Honshū	6,938,004	3,767.09	1,827	9	90	JP-11
Shiga	滋賀県	Otsu	Kansai	Honshū	1,342,811	4,017.36	334	11	50	JP-25
Shimane	島根県	Matsue	Chūgoku	Honshū	761,499	6,707.32	114	12	59	JP-32
Shizuoka	静岡県	Shizuoka	Chūbu	Honshū	3,767,427	7,328.61	484	12	74	JP-22
Tochigi	栃木県	Utsunomiya	Kantō	Honshū	2,004,787	6,408.28	313	7	33	JP-09
Tokushima	徳島県	Tokushima	Shikoku	Shikoku	823,997	4,145.26	199	10	50	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	6	39	JP-31
Toyama	富山県	Toyama	Chūbu	Honshū	1,120,843	4,247.22	264	6	27	JP-16
Wakayama	和歌山県	Wakayama	Kansai	Honshū	1,069,839	4,725.55	226	7	50	JP-30
Yamagata	山形県	Yamagata	Tōhoku	Honshū	1,244,040	9,323.34	133	9	44	JP-06
Yamaguchi	山口県	Yamaguchi	Chūgoku	Honshū	1,528,107	6,110.76	250	11	56	JP-35
Yamanashi	山梨県	Kofu	Chūbu	Honshū	888,170	4,465.37	199	8	64	JP-19

Map

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
• Kokura Prefecture—created from three prefectures in December 1871 and absorbed into Fukuoka prefecture in 1876
• Government of Japan
• List of governors of Japan

References

External links

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

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