A Nippon.com series on Japan’s prefectures, giving brief overviews of the 47 areas, from Hokkaidō in the north to Okinawa in the south, that make up the nation as a whole. Japan has 47 prefectures.

On a map of the world, Japan looks like a pretty tiny place. Zoom in to a map of just Japan, though, and you’ll see that it has 47 different prefectures, and every year Japan’s Brand Research ...