Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
is divided into eight
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
s. 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.
Each region contains one or more of the country's
47 prefectures. Of the four
main islands of Japan,
Hokkaidō
is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
,
Shikoku, and
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
make up one region each, the latter also containing the
Satsunan Islands, while the largest island
Honshū is divided into five regions.
Okinawa Prefecture is usually included in Kyūshū, but is sometimes treated as its own ninth region.
Japan has eight High Courts, but their jurisdictions do not correspond to the eight regions (see
Judicial system of Japan for details).
Table
Regions and islands
This is a list of Japan's major islands, traditional regions, and subregions, going from northeast to southwest.
Regions of Japan on web-japan.org
/ref> The eight traditional regions are marked in bold.
* Hokkaidō
is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
(the island and its archipelago)
* Honshū
** Tōhoku region
The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata.
Tōhoku reta ...
(northern part)
** Kantō region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Sl ...
(eastern part)
*** Nanpō Islands (part of Tokyo Metropolis)
** Chūbu region (central part)
*** Hokuriku region (northwestern Chūbu)
*** Kōshin'etsu region (northeastern Chūbu)
*** Tōkai region (southern Chūbu)
** Kansai (or Kinki) region (south-central part)
** Chūgoku region
The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi. In 2010, it had a population of 7,563,428.
History
''Ch ...
(western part)
*** San'in region (northern Chūgoku)
*** San'yō region (southern Chūgoku)
* Shikoku
* Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
** Northern Kyūshū
** Southern Kyūshū
is a subregion of the Kyushu region of Japan. This southern region encompasses the prefectures of Kagoshima, Miyazaki, and Okinawa.
It has more of a subtropical climate than the rest of Kyushu.
See also
* Northern Kyushu
* List of regions ...
** Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yon ...
*** Satsunan Islands
*** Okinawa
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi).
...
Other regional divisions
In many contexts in Japan (government, media markets, sports, regional business or trade union confederations), regions are used that deviate from the above-mentioned common geographical 8-region division that is sometimes referred to as "the" regions of Japan in the English Wikipedia and some other English-language publications. Examples of regional divisions of Japan as used by various institutions are:
See also
* Ecoregions of Japan
* Geography of Japan
*Prefectures of Japan
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures (, ''todōfuken'', ), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They include 43 prefectures proper (, '' ken''), tw ...
References
External links
{{Regions and administrative divisions of Japan
Regions of
Regions