Regions

The regions of Japan are not official administrative units, but have been traditionally used as the regional division of Japan in a number of contexts. For instance, maps and geography textbooks divide Japan into the eight regions, weather reports usually give the weather by region, and many businesses and institutions use their home region as part of their name (Kinki Nippon Railway, Chugoku Bank, Tohoku University, and so on.). While Japan has eight High Courts, their jurisdictions do not correspond to the eight regions below.

From north to south, the traditional regions are:

• Hokkaido (the island of Hokkaido and nearby islands, largest city Sapporo)
• Tohoku region (northern Honshu, largest city Sendai)
• Kanto region (eastern Honshu, largest cities Tokyo and Yokohama)
• Chubu region (central Honshu, including Mt. Fuji), sometimes divided into:
  • Hokuriku region (northwestern Chubu)
  • Koshin'etsu region (northeastern Chubu, largest city Nagano)
  • Tokai region (southern Chubu, largest city Nagoya, Hamamatsu, and Shizuoka)
  • Chukyo region (southwestern Chubu, largest city Nagoya, Gifu,and Yokkaichi)
• Kansai or Kinki region (west-central Honshu, largest cities Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto)
• Chugoku region (western Honshu, largest city Hiroshima, and Okayama)
• Shikoku (island, largest city Matsuyama, and Takamatsu)
• Kyushu (island, largest city Fukuoka) which includes:
  • Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa

Each contains several prefectures, except the Hokkaido region, which covers only Hokkaido.

Prefectures

The prefectures of Japan (shown in the table below) are the country's 47 sub-national jurisdictions: one metropolis, Tokyo; one circuit, Hokkaido; two urban prefectures, Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures. In Japanese, they are commonly referred to as todofuken. Each prefecture is led by a directly elected governor and a single-chamber parliament and is further subdivided into cities (shi) and districts (gun). Each district is further subdivided into towns (cho or machi) and villages (son or mura).