Japan Map with Prefectures

Japan has 47 prefectures, and this map shows all 47. They make up the country's first-level administrative division and carry four different Japanese titles: Tokyo is a to (metropolis), Hokkaido is a do, Kyoto and Osaka are fu (urban prefectures), and the other 43 are ken. English renders all four as "prefecture" because they hold equal administrative rank. The figure has stood at 47 since 15 May 1972, when Okinawa returned to Japanese administration and joined the 46 units that existed before it. Below the prefectures sit cities, towns and villages; above them, the 47 are grouped into 8 regions for statistical purposes.

Hokkaido is the largest prefecture in Japan by area at 83,424 km² (32,210 sq mi, Geospatial Information Authority figures), which is more than a fifth of the national land area and about 44 times the size of Kagawa, the smallest prefecture. It is also the northernmost prefecture, bounded by the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and the Pacific, and it is often treated as a region of its own in the eight-region grouping. Its administrative center is Sapporo, the base for the surrounding winter tourism areas. Hokkaido is the only prefecture titled do rather than ken, and it is among the least densely populated.

Tokyo is the most populated prefecture in Japan, with 14,246,219 residents recorded in the 2025 Population Census preliminary counts (1 October 2025). Tokyo is unusual in doubling as the national capital and as a first-level unit, and its Japanese title is to, usually translated as metropolis. The gap to the least populous prefecture is wide: Tottori counted 523,732 people in the same census, so Tokyo holds about 27 times as many. Other prefectures anchored by large cities include Kanagawa with Yokohama, Osaka with Osaka, Aichi with Nagoya and Fukuoka with Fukuoka and Kitakyushu.

Kagawa, on the island of Shikoku, is the smallest prefecture in Japan by area at 1,877 km² (725 sq mi, Geospatial Information Authority figures). That is under one forty-fourth of Hokkaido, the largest at 83,424 km² (32,210 sq mi). Smallest by population is a different prefecture: Tottori, on the Sea of Japan coast, recorded 523,732 residents in the 2025 Population Census preliminary counts, the lowest of the 47. Tokyo is small in land terms among the heavily populated prefectures yet by far the largest in people, with 14,246,219 in the same census, which is why area rank and population rank rarely line up in Japan.

Japan's 47 prefectures are commonly grouped into 8 regions: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu/Okinawa. These regions have no government or legal status of their own. They are conventional groupings used in statistics, school geography, weather reporting and travel planning. Hokkaido consists of a single prefecture. Kanto contains Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures, Kansai contains Osaka and Kyoto, and Shikoku covers the four prefectures on the smallest main island, including Kagawa. Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefectural territory, is normally counted with Kyushu, which is why the list sometimes appears as "Kyushu/Okinawa" rather than as two separate entries.

Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyoto and Osaka keep older titles that survived from the way the system was set up in the nineteenth century. Tokyo is a to, translated as metropolis. Hokkaido is a do, a term meaning circuit that reflects its status as a whole region rather than a single province. Kyoto and Osaka are fu, usually rendered as urban prefectures, a title once given to the most important cities. The remaining 43 are ken. The distinction is historic naming rather than power: all 47 sit at the same level of administration, each with an elected governor and assembly, so English uses one word for the lot.

Japan has neither states nor provinces. Prefectures are the country's only first-level administrative division, and there are 47 of them. Each has an elected governor and prefectural assembly, and each is subdivided into cities, towns and villages. Historical provinces did exist before the modern system and their names still appear in place names, food labels and rail lines, but they carry no administrative function today. Above the prefectures there is no intermediate government tier, only the 8 informal regions used in statistics. Anyone searching for a map of Japanese states or provinces is generally looking for exactly this prefecture map.

Two island groups appear as disputed on many maps of Japan. The Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, lie northeast of Hokkaido and have been under Russian administration since 1945. The Senkaku Islands, also called the Pinnacle Islands, sit in the East China Sea and are administered by Japan while claimed by China and Taiwan. Neither dispute affects the number of first-level units: Japan assigns the Northern Territories to Hokkaido and the Senkaku Islands to Okinawa, so the total stays at 47 prefectures. Japan has no land borders at all, since every one of its boundaries with other states is maritime.

Ultimaps turns this page into a Japan map editor, free tier included, with nothing to install and no registration step. Statistical coloring is the main draw: give the editor a value for each prefecture and the choropleth builds itself across all 47. Individual prefectures also respond to direct selection when only Okinawa or Aomori needs emphasis. Typography, boundary strength and the backdrop have their own settings, label text is editable, and any location, whether a named city or a coordinate pair, can receive a captioned marker. PNG, PDF and SVG downloads cover print and web use.