Prefectures of Japan
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Prefectures of Japan trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Japan is divided into prefectures, each with its own capital, dialect, local dishes and fierce local pride. Some are household names around the world; others are known mainly for a single castle, shrine, volcano or bowl of noodles. Together they explain how the country fits together, from snowbound northern coasts to subtropical islands. This quiz covers the whole map. You will be asked to name a prefecture from its landmarks, its famous food or its place in history, to match capitals to the right prefecture, and to recall how feudal domains and old provinces were redrawn into the modern system. A handful of questions look at how prefectures are run and what the different kinds are called. It suits geography students learning the map of Japan, travellers planning a trip beyond Tokyo, and quiz hosts who need a ready-made round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something, and the questions can be printed for use on paper.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which prefecture of Japan, not the capital itself, is home to both Tokyo Disneyland and Narita International Airport?
Chiba
Chiba has hosted Tokyo Disneyland in the city of Urayasu since 1983, when it opened as the first Disney park built outside the United States. Narita, the airport, had begun operating in the same prefecture in 1978.
Q 02Which prefecture in northern Japan gave its name to the dog breed of Hachiko, the famously loyal pet?
Akita
Akita is home to the city of Odate, where Hachiko was born on a farm in 1923. The breed itself was known as the Odate dog until 1931, when it took the name of the whole prefecture.
Q 03Which prefecture, the most northerly in Japan, celebrates winter with a huge snow festival in its capital, Sapporo?
Hokkaido
Hokkaido is also the largest prefecture in Japan. Its Sapporo Snow Festival began as a one-day event in 1950, when six local high school students built six snow statues in a city park.
Q 04Which prefecture of Japan, once the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, stayed under American administration until 1972?
Okinawa
Okinawa was returned to Japan on May 15, 1972, 27 years after the battle fought there. Karate also comes from these islands: it grew up in the old kingdom under Chinese influence.
Q 05Which prefecture's capital was home to Japan's emperors for eleven centuries, until the court moved to Tokyo?
Kyoto
Kyoto was chosen as the seat of the imperial court in 794 by Emperor Kanmu. After the court left for the city whose new name meant eastern capital, it was briefly known as Saikyo, the western capital.
Q 06Which prefecture of Japan holds the Atomic Bomb Dome and Itsukushima Shrine, whose gate seems to float at high tide?
Hiroshima
Hiroshima's dome was the only structure left standing near the hypocenter of the 1945 bomb. First scheduled for demolition, it is now kept as a preserved ruin and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q 07Which prefecture of Japan suffered meltdowns at its Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami of March 2011?
Fukushima
Fukushima is the third-largest prefecture in Japan, and the plant stood on its Pacific coast at Okuma. Mountain ranges split it into three regions called Aizu, Nakadori and Hamadori.
Q 08Which prefecture of Japan is the birthplace of takoyaki, the octopus-filled batter balls first sold by a street vendor?
Osaka
Osaka street vendor Tomekichi Endo is credited with inventing takoyaki in 1935. Merchants there also set up the Dojima Rice Exchange in 1697, where the world's first futures market took shape.
Q 09Which landlocked prefecture of Japan, host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, borders more prefectures than any other?
Nagano
Nagano touches eight other prefectures, the most of any in the country. Its mountains are also home to Jigokudani, the valley where wild snow monkeys gather around the hot springs.
Q 10Which old Japanese province, now western Kagoshima Prefecture, gave its name to a small, easy-peeling orange?
Satsuma
Satsuma was the province from which these mandarins were first exported to the West. Towns in Alabama, Florida, Texas and Louisiana were later named after the fruit.
Q 11How many prefectures make up Japan, a total reached after more than 300 early prefectures were merged?
47
Japan has 47 prefectures, which rank immediately below the national government. Within months of the 1871 reform that created them, mergers had already cut the first batch to 72.
Q 12Which port city, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture, was devastated in 1995 by the Great Hanshin earthquake?
Kobe
Kobe is also the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, and the home of Arima Onsen, one of the most famous hot spring resorts in Japan. At least 5,000 people died in the earthquake.
Q 13Which island of Japan has a name that means 'four provinces', matching the four prefectures that share it today?
Shikoku
Q 21Which prefecture on Japan's island of Kyushu is home to Mount Aso, one of the world's largest active volcanoes?
Kumamoto
Kumamoto has Mount Aso in its east, where a smoking cone sits at the centre of a caldera about 25 kilometres long and 18 wide.
Q 22Which prefecture of Japan, home to the largest city on Kyushu, is the birthplace of pork-bone tonkotsu ramen?
Fukuoka
Fukuoka food vendor Tokio Miyamoto invented tonkotsu ramen in the city of Kurume in 1937. In the capital the dish is often called Hakata ramen, after the historical name of the city centre.
Q 23Which prefecture at the northern tip of Honshu, Japan's best-known apple region, is where the Fuji apple was developed?
Aomori
Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. The name recalls the old provinces of Awa, Tosa, Sanuki and Iyo, each of which became one of the modern prefectures.
Q 14Which hilltop castle in Hyogo Prefecture, nicknamed the White Heron, was one of Japan's first World Heritage Sites?
Himeji
Himeji Castle owes the nickname to its brilliant white walls, said to resemble a bird taking flight. It came through both the bombing of 1945 and the earthquake of 1995 almost undamaged.
Q 15Which prefecture of Japan shares Mount Fuji with Yamanashi and includes the resort coast of the Izu Peninsula?
Shizuoka
Shizuoka is also known as the green tea heartland of Japan. Mount Fuji, the tallest volcano in the country, stands on its north-eastern border.
Q 16Which prefecture of Japan, home to the old shogunate seat of Kamakura, has Yokohama as its capital?
Kanagawa
Kanagawa takes in Yokohama, the second-largest city in Japan, as well as Kamakura, where the first shogunate ruled from 1185 to 1333.
Q 17Which prefecture of Japan, whose capital is Nagoya, is home to the Toyota Motor Corporation?
Aichi
Aichi even has a city called Toyota: the town of Koromo took the car maker's name because of its long ties with the company.
Q 18Which government of Japan, named after its emperor, replaced the feudal domains with prefectures in 1871?
Meiji
The Meiji government required every daimyo, or feudal lord, to return his authority to the emperor. The reform is known in Japanese as haihan-chiken: abolish the domains, establish prefectures.
Q 19Which prefecture's harbour held Dejima, the artificial island that was Japan's only door to the West for two centuries?
Nagasaki
Nagasaki kept Dutch traders on Dejima from 1641 to 1858, on an island linked to the town by one small bridge that was guarded on both sides.
Q 20Which Japanese prefecture's capital, the imperial seat in the 700s, is known for its Great Buddha and sacred deer?
Nara
Nara was the site of Heijo-kyo, the capital for most of the years from 710 to 784. Its Buddha, the largest bronze statue of its kind in the world, sits in the Great Buddha Hall of the temple of Todai-ji.
Aomori growers bred the Fuji in 1939 in the town of Fujisaki, which gave the apple its name. The prefecture grows more than half of all the apples produced in the country.
Q 24Which prefecture, the smallest in Japan by area, is famous above all for its Sanuki udon noodles?
Kagawa
Kagawa was formerly known as Sanuki Province, which is where the noodles get their name. In 2008 the prefecture had more than 700 udon restaurants.
Q 25Which prefecture, the least populous in Japan, is famous for the great sand dunes on its Sea of Japan coast?
Tottori
Tottori also holds Mount Daisen, the highest peak in the Chugoku Mountains. Its dunes are among the largest in the country.
Q 26Which prefecture on the Sea of Japan includes Sado Island, whose old gold mines are now a World Heritage Site?
Niigata
Niigata was once two old provinces, Echigo on the mainland and Sado offshore. The mines joined the UNESCO list in 2024, and rice remains the principal product of the prefecture.
Q 27Which prefecture of Japan is home to Ise Shrine, the sanctuary of the sun goddess that is rebuilt every 20 years?
Mie
Mie's great shrine is dismantled and rebuilt on an adjacent site so that it stays forever new, and so that building techniques pass from one generation to the next.
Q 28Which prefecture of Japan is home to Nikko's Toshogu, the shrine and tomb of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu?
Tochigi
Tochigi's shrine, first built in 1617, carries the famous carving of the three wise monkeys on the stable of its sacred horses.
Q 29Which region of six prefectures in northern Honshu bore the brunt of Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami?
Tohoku
Tohoku literally means north-east, and the region is also known as Ou. The disaster of March 11, 2011 killed more than 19,000 people along its eastern coast.
Q 30Which directly elected official, chosen for a four-year term, is the chief executive of each prefecture of Japan?
Governor
Governor is the English title for the post, known in Japanese as chiji. Each one appoints between one and four deputies with the approval of the prefectural assembly.