Japan is divided into 47 prefectures , which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first … See more

The West's use of "prefecture" to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of "prefeitura" to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese… See more

Japan is a unitary state. The central government delegates many functions (such as education and the police force) to the prefectures and municipalities, but retains the overall right to control them. Although lo… See more

Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones (奉行支配地) around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones (郡代支配地) elsewhere. When the Meiji go… See more

The different systems of parsing frame the ways in which Japanese prefectures are perceived:
The prefectures are also often grouped into eight regions (地方, chihō). Those regions are not for… See more

• List of Japanese prefectural name etymologies
• List of Japanese prefectures by area
• List of Japanese prefectures by population… See more