Talk:Prefectures of Japan

message: How does a Japanese prefecture differ from a French prefecture ?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.193.125.87 (talk) 10:58, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In France, the word "préfecture" generally refers to either the prefectoral office (of which there is one in each département), or the city in which it is located. In Japan, the prefecture is the entire area under the authority of the governor (so it corresponds to a French département, and actually it is sometimes translated as "département" in French, to avoid confusion). So in French you could say "I'm going to the préfecture", meaning the prefectoral office, probably of your département of residence for some administrative matter (this of course would be nonsensical in Japanese), or "Bordeaux is the préfecture of the Gironde département", meaning it is the city where the prefectoral office of that département is located. (The word "capital" is not used in this sense in French, but there is also the more general word "chef-lieu".)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.193.131.11 (talk) 02:45, 14 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question 

message: In what sense is Shinjuku the capital of Tokyo? I can't find anything relevant in the Shinjuku article. --Auximines 10:11, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd prefer not to call Shinjuku the capital of Tokyo, but in fact, the governor's office, legislature, and administration are located in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, which as a special ward has the status of a city, and so could be called a capital city. Fg2 10:41, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shinjuku 

message: A survey is being conducted at Wikipedia_talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related_articles)#Prefectures and macrons to determine which prefectures should have their spelling "macron-ized", per the existing manual of style.  Oita has been changed already, and each of the others is current being discussed (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Hyogo, and Kochi).  Please join the discussion if you wish.  Neier 00:32, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spelling of Prefectures 

message: In the second graphic, 16 is 富山(Toyama). It is not 福山(Fukuyama).  The kanji is incorrect in the graphic itself.
:Thanks for pointing that out, Karaokeyoga. I've changed the graphic. I hope it's correct now. Fg2 05:25, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Toyama, not Fukuyama 

message: The article mentions the proposal but does not state if it became law or not. Funnyhat 23:43, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No change so far. Still occasionally debated. Fg2 06:37, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  2003 proposal by Koizumi 

message: Perhaps I missed it, but what is the source for the list of regions?  There's not really a problem with it, but, as was mentioned in the article, this is not an officially-used or recognized classification of prefectures.  (In fact, I have heard or seen many slightly different lists of regions, and several of them overlap depending on who you're talking to, such as Kinki-Kansai-Chubu.)  I'd be interested to know whether this is the most widely-used scheme, and how that was determined.  Miemi 17:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Regions

message: From the article,
Usually, prefectures are called by their name only, without the suffix, except for Hokkaidō. However, the suffix is used when it is necessary to distinguish between the prefecture and a city of the same name. For example, Hiroshima-ken is the Japanese name of the prefecture, and Hiroshima-shi is its largest city.
General exposure to Japan and Japanese language reveals this not to be true. Prefectures are referred to by their name with the suffix at least as much if not more often making statement vacuous if not incorrect. Is there a particular reference that backs this up? Ian Lewis (talk) 02:03, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prefecture suffix 

message: How is Shinjuku the capital of Tokyo? It's the location of the Tokyo Government but is there even an official capital of Tokyo? Is there a reference for this as well? Ian Lewis (talk) 02:12, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Please see discussion above. Although I wrote there that it "could be called a capital city" I'd prefer not to do so. I'd be happy with a blank in the Capital column of the table. I think we discussed this separately at Talk:Tokyo (it's probably in an old, old archive) and concluded that we should not list it as the capital in the article Tokyo. So the information box in Tokyo says "Capital n/a." Fg2 (talk) 07:17, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shinjuku is the capital of Tokyo? 

message: What are the requirements for the following subdivisions in population, area etc.? jlog3000 (talk) 13:26, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think there are any requirements for district or village. Although there have been many changes, I suspect the districts are largely left alone apart from being abolished when they don't have any towns or villages left. They originated way back in the Ritsuryo state and it would make a good guess that they were originally holdings of powerful local elites but I certainly don't know that for a fact. The divisions of towns and villages (ōaza, aza, chōme) are probably just matters of convenience and at the discretion of the town or village, but I could be surprises by this. Villages shouldn't have minimums, since they're just the rest of the district that isn't a town. Probably the only one with prescribed minimums is the town. Again, just guesses. Fg2 (talk) 21:58, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Requirements for each subdivision

message: I think the confusion stems from the fact that, in Japanese, they don't use the word "capital" for prefectural capitals. They instead just use the term 県庁所在地, meaning "location of the Prefectural Office (capital building)." Whatever city the prefectural capital building happens to be in is the de facto capital of that prefecture. With Tokyo, the capital building is in Shinjuku, which is, itself, a separate municipality. Whether Japanese people would consider Shinjuku to be the "capital" of Tokyo in the sense that we native English speakers do would probably be cause for contention even among Japanese and whether or not such a distinction applies to the English version is a matter for debate. But it's food for thought.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.215.225.13 (talk) 02:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why Shinjuku is called the capital of Tokyo. 

message: I was just wondering. How about a requirement for prefectures to become '-fu' if they have a designated city? jlog3000 (talk) 13:31, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think there are any requirements to become a fu; it appears just historical. Kind of like in the U.S. there are no requirements for a state to become a commonwealth; it's just the name that four states have chosen to use. The fu name doesn't appear to carry any higher status (and in the same way, "commonwealth" does not indicate any higher, or lower, status). I suspect (without looking it up) that Kyoto and Osaka were fu before the designated city system came into effect. So I would guess there's no connection. But I certainly don't know enough about that subject to write anything in an encyclopedia article without further research. Fg2 (talk) 21:49, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, I see your point, but I was wondering if the Japanese government can propose that idea of new urban prefectures or fu in some time in the future. jlog3000 (talk) 15:49, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  How about a requirement to become a '-fu'? 

message: The chart shows a lot of old numbers for municipalities and districts that are no longer accurate because of redistricting.  I've made a small start but a lot more is needed.  We should use the numbers from the prefecture page for agreement.  Is there any way to make that update automatically?  Jrhoadley (talk) 14:14, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Chart needs to be updated to account for redistricting

message: The article needs to avoid Japanese language lessons. This is supposed to be about government, but winds up with way too much history and language lesson. Needs to be re-written to avoid this in non-Japanese language Wikipedias. Student7 (talk) 19:23, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Government_of_Japan#Local_government has prefecture information which is probably more useful than found here. This is just a list, apparently. Needs it's own article "Japanese Prefecture." Student7 (talk) 19:35, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Japanese lesson

message: The useful information at  is the same as in the image in the upper right corner.  Although the size is easier to read, the map overwhelmed list section of the article.The image remains and the template has been removed, but this could be changed if we have consensus to do it. --Ansei (talk) 17:07, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Template

message: What powers do the prefectures enjoy?  For example, may they raise and spend money independently of the central government? Grover cleveland (talk) 22:03, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Added. Grover cleveland (talk) 22:21, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Powers?

message: In the Japanese ISO table, Okinawa is listed as a prefecture under the Kyushu region, and forms a separate region of its own in the next column (with no prefectures). Something doesn't compute! Ptilinopus (talk) 07:40, 4 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Okinawa 

message: Niigata is misspelled (as "Nigata") in the map. Jason Stormchild (talk) 00:10, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Niigata