List of regions of Japan

This is a list of Japan's major islands, traditional regions, and subregions, going from northeast to southwest. The eight traditional regions are marked in bold. • Hokkaidō (the island and its archipelago) • Honshū • Tōhoku region (northern part) • Kantō region (eastern part) • Nanpō Islands (part of Tokyo Metropolis) • Chūbu region (central part) • Hokuriku region (northwestern Chūbu) • Kōshin'etsu region (northeastern Chūbu) • Tōkai region (southern Chūbu) • Kansai (or Kinki) region (south-central part) • Chūgoku region (western part) • San'in region (northern Chūgoku) • San'yō region (southern Chūgoku) • Shikoku • Kyūshū • Northern Kyūshū • Southern Kyūshū • Ryukyu Islands • Satsunan Islands • Okinawa == Other regional divisions ==

In many contexts in Japan (government, media markets, sports, regional business or trade union confederations), regional groupings are used that digress from the above-mentioned common 8-region geographical division. The 8-region model is frequently regarded as a standard on the English Wikipedia and some other English-language publications. Examples of regional divisions used by other particular institutions include: == Regions as administrative units ==

, previously and today a building used by Hiroshima University In the later stages of World War II, in preparation for an Allied invasion of the home islands, regions served as administrative units between the Home Ministry and the governments of prefectures from 1943. Initially, nine "regional administrative joint conferences" (地方行政協議会, chihō gyōsei kyō-kaigi) were set up, each comprising several prefectural governments under the leadership of one prefectural government. In 1945, they were consolidated into eight centralized "regional governorates-general" (地方総監府, chihō sōkan-fu) with authority of command over the subordinate prefectural governments. The regions corresponded territorially to the military districts (軍管区, gunkan-ku) as used by the Imperial Army in 1945. They were namely: After capitulation, the governorates-general were immediately dissolved by GHQ/SCAP and the (in the Empire: very limited) local autonomy of prefectural governments and their elected assemblies restored to be eventually substantially expanded by the Constitution and the Local Autonomy Law in 1947. ==See also==