Japan > Related Articles
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
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Parent topics
- East Asia [r]: Region comprising China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan; also defined in cultural terms, with these nations historically or at present sharing writing systems, philosophical modes of thought, and other relationships (population about 1,600,000,000). [e]
Subtopics
Regions
Japan consists of four large islands and thousands of smaller ones. While the sparsely-populated northern island of Hokkaido is its own prefecture (see below), others are split into smaller political and cultural regions.
Honshu
- Honshu [r]: (本州 Honshuu) largest of the islands of Japan, divided into five regions and including the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima; population about 103,000,000. [e]
- Tohoku [r]: (東北地方 Toohoku-chihoo), northerly region of Japan on Honshu island, divided into six prefectures and including the cities of Sendai and Akita; population about 9,500,000. [e]
- Kanto [r]: (関東地方 Kantoo-chihoo), region of Japan on Honshu island, divided into seven prefectures and including the capital, Tokyo; population about 41,650,000. [e]
- Chubu [r]: (中部地方 Chuubu-chihoo), region of Japan on Honshu island, divided into nine prefectures and including the city of Nagoya and Mount Fuji; population about 21,700,000. [e]
- Kansai [r]: (関西地方 Kansai-chihoo), region of Japan also known as Kinki (近畿地方 Kinki-chihoo) on Honshu island, divided into seven prefectures and including the cities of Kyoto and Osaka; population about 22,500,000. [e]
- Chugoku [r]: (中国地方 Chuugoku-chihoo), westerly region of Japan also known as Sanin-Sanyo (山陰山陽地方 Sanin-Sanyoo-chihoo) on Honshu island, divided into five prefectures and including the cities of Hiroshima and Okayama; population about 7,600,000. [e]
Hokkaido
- Hokkaido [r]: (北海道 Hokkaidoo) second-largest and northernmost of the main islands of Japan, including the cities of Sapporo, Hakodate and Asahikawa; population about 5,500,000. [e]
Kyushu
- Kyushu [r]: (九州 Kyuushuu) third-largest and westernmost of the main islands of Japan, divided into seven regions and including the cities of Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Kagoshima; population about 13,000,000. [e]
- Ryukyu Islands [r]: (南西諸島 Nansei Shotoo 'Southwest Islands') subtropical Japanese island chain in the East China Sea, east of Taiwan; divided between Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures and home to the Ryukyuan languages and people. [e]
Shikoku
- Shikoku [r]: (四国) smallest and least populated of the four main islands of Japan, divided into four prefectures and including the cities of Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Tokushima and Uwajima; population about 4,000,000. [e]
Prefectures
Administrative divisions or 'prefectures' of Japan are known as todōfuken (都道府県) in Japanese. Typically -ken (県) added to a place name indicates that it is a prefecture. Other regions are identified using -to (都 'metropolis', for Tokyo), -fu (府 'metropolitan prefecture', for Kyoto and Osaka) or -dō (道 'administrative region', used only in Hokkaido).
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Other related topics
- Culture of Japan
- Japan, history
- Japanese language [r]: (日本語 Nihongo), Japonic language spoken mostly in Japan; Japonic family's linguistic relationship to other tongues yet to be established, though Japanese may be related to Korean; written in a combination of Chinese-derived characters (漢字 kanji) and native hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ) scripts; about 125,000,000 native speakers worldwide. [e]
- Japanese English [r]: English as used by native speakers of Japanese, either for communicating with non-Japanese speakers or commercial and entertainment purposes. Includes vocabulary and usages not found in the native English-speaking world. [e]
- Life expectancy - Japan
