A Quick Guide for How to Understand the Organization of Japan

Here’s a quick guide to help you grasp how Japan is organized, both geographically and administratively. This helps to make sense of Tokyo in a greater context.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and intimidated by Japan’s organization. You’re presented with regions, wards, prefectures, municipalities, islands, and yet, how does it all relate? How do you make sense of this?

This flow chart is designed to basically lay it out in a simple and straightforward way. First, Japan is organized according to two different ways: geographically and administratively. Here’s a simple breakdown.

A Geographic Breakdown of Japan

Islands

From the broadest, macro perspective, the country of Japan as a whole is divided into 4 Main Islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Tokyo is located on the Honshu Island. These island names are for map and delineating purposes and are named from north to south.

Regions

Next, you have regions. These regions are functionally used to also subdivide the country even further, but it’s also for non-administrative purposes. This division is useful for books, references, and mapping purposes. There are 8 Regions: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu (from north to south).

Prefectural Breakdown of Japan

Now, the fun begins. If you’ve ever wondered how wards and prefectures all relate, you’re not alone. It’s a bit messy because there’s a lot of overlap. You have a ton of neighborhoods that are within cities that are within wards, that are within prefectures that are within regions, located within islands. But, once you understand the top-down organization, it all makes perfect sense. The flow chart visually tells the story.

Prefectures

There are 47 prefectures in Japan, and these form the broadest source of administration in the country. Tokyo is located in the Tokyo Prefecture, while Yokohama is located within the Yokohama Prefecture.

Municipalities

Within each prefecture, you have cities, wards, villages, and towns. These all comprise what are called municipalities. There are a total of 1,719 municipalities in the entire country. A ward is denoted by the word ku, in Japanese. You’ll often hear “Shibuya-ku” which means the Shibuya Ward.

Within the metropolis of Tokyo, you, therefore, have cities within cities. But, Tokyo itself is comprised of 23 Special Wards, which is slightly different than the traditional wards in Japan. But, for all intents and purposes, it’s an administrative ward, and within each ward, you can find the many colorful neighborhoods of Tokyo.

Without going into the actual administrative function of each municipality, hopefully, you can better see how Tokyo relates to the whole of Japan. It can be quite confusing for both a first-time traveler, as well as a seasoned ex-pat!