Japan prefectures quiz

The 47 prefectures in the quiz

Japan has 47 prefectures: 47 in the quiz. Use the Capitals button in the panel to find their capitals instead.

How to play

In Point mode we name a prefecture and you tap it on the map; in Type mode one lights up and you type its name (accents don’t matter); and in Time trial you get 6 seconds per question. If you miss, we show you where it was, which way it lies and a hint drawn from the data: its size rank and its neighbors.

Each game has 10, 20 or all the questions, and at the end you can practice just the ones you missed. Your best score for each mode is saved in this browser only: neither we nor anyone else can see it, and there’s no sign-up.

The hardest ones

The smallest prefectures are the hardest, since they barely show on the map: Kagawa (about 720 sq mi), Osaka (about 720 sq mi), and Okinawa (about 840 sq mi). Zoom in with the buttons or two fingers to tap them.

And watch out for look-alike names: Fukushima and Tokushima.

Tips to learn them

• Start with the three largest: Hokkaido, Iwate, and Fukushima cover 29% of the area of Japan.
• 8 of the 47 have no coastline: Gifu, Gunma, Nagano, Nara, Saitama, Shiga, Tochigi, and Yamanashi.
• Hokkaido and Okinawa have no land border with any other prefecture on the map: look for them at sea.
• Nagano has the most neighbors: it borders 8 prefectures. Once you place it, you have a landmark for many more.

Playing in class

If you teach in Japan, start with your school’s prefecture and its neighbors and add a few each day. Otherwise, it’s a good way to get to know the country before studying it.

With the Challenge your class link, everyone gets the same questions in the same order, with no accounts or passwords, and each student sees their own score, time and streak. To practice on paper, there’s a printable worksheet of the same map with an answer key.

List of all 47 prefectures

1. Aichi Nagoya
2. Akita Akita
3. Aomori Aomori
4. Chiba Chiba
5. Ehime Matsuyama
6. Fukui Fukui
7. Fukuoka Fukuoka
8. Fukushima Fukushima
9. Gifu Gifu
10. Gunma Maebashi
11. Hiroshima Hiroshima
12. Hokkaido Sapporo
13. Hyogo Kobe
14. Ibaraki Mito
15. Ishikawa Kanazawa
16. Iwate Morioka
17. Kagawa Takamatsu
18. Kagoshima Kagoshima
19. Kanagawa Yokohama
20. Kochi Kochi
21. Kumamoto Kumamoto
22. Kyoto Kyoto
23. Mie Tsu
24. Miyagi Sendai
25. Miyazaki Miyazaki
26. Nagano Nagano
27. Nagasaki Nagasaki
28. Nara Nara
29. Niigata Niigata
30. Oita Oita
31. Okayama Okayama
32. Okinawa Naha
33. Osaka Osaka
34. Saga Saga
35. Saitama Saitama
36. Shiga Otsu
37. Shimane Matsue
38. Shizuoka Shizuoka
39. Tochigi Utsunomiya
40. Tokushima Tokushima
41. Tokyo Shinjuku
42. Tottori Tottori
43. Toyama Toyama
44. Wakayama Wakayama
45. Yamagata Yamagata
46. Yamaguchi Yamaguchi
47. Yamanashi Kofu