A familiar place sits at the top.

Japan might look like a tiny country on the world map, but zoom in and you’ll find that it’s made up of 47 different prefectures, each one with their own appeal. But which prefecture is the most appealing?

That’s a question that Tokyo-based Brand Research Institute asks every year, in its annual Prefectural Attractiveness Ranking. This year’s data was compiled through an online survey conducted in June and July which asked 90 questions about people’s perceptions of both sightseeing and daily life for the subdivisions of Japan, collecting answers from 33,449 respondents between the ages of 20 and 79.

In the overall rankings, Tokyo came in at fifth place, with its neighbor to the south, Kanagawa Prefecture, just above it in fourth. Both got positive reactions from respondents in questions relating to wanting to live in the prefecture, with Kanagawa topping that category and Tokyo coming in second, likely a result of the vast economic, educational, and entertainment opportunities available in Tokyo and Kanagawa’s capital of Yokohama, Japan’s second-most populous city. In terms of sightseeing attractiveness, Kanagawa, which includes the temple town of Kamakura and hot spring resorts of Hakone, was ranked fifth and Tokyo seventh, but both finished out of the top 10 for memorable/representative food, perhaps by nature of having so much dining variety that it’s hard for individual dishes to stand out.

▼ Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market and Tsukiji district are famous for their sushi and sashimi, but don’t have a particular star fish that’s associated with them like some other parts of Japan do.

Coming in third in the overall ranking was Okinawa. With the warmest weather and best beaches in the country, plus distinctive local cultural traditions and cuisine, Okinawa ranked sixth in “want to live in,” second for sightseeing, and sixth for food.

Second place went to Kyoto Prefecture, though odds are the survey respondents were primarily thinking of the historical temples and elegant manners associated with Kyoto City when they ranked it third in sightseeing and ninth in living. Surprisingly, Kyoto finished out of the top 10 for appealing food, maybe because some of its culinary representatives, such as “Kyo yasai” (Kyoto-raised vegetables) and full-course kaiseki meals are more ingredients and dining styles than specific dishes that foodies can experience cravings for.

That brings us to the top spot in the overall rankings, where we find…

…Hokkaido. Japan’s northernmost prefecture was the highest-rated in last year’s survey as well, and as a matter of fact, has finished in the number-one spot for 17 years in a row, stretching all the way back to the first time the Brand Research Institute conducted the study in 2009.

Famous for its wide-open farmland, national parks, ski slopes, and picturesque port cities, Hokkaido topped the sightseeing ranking. The prefecture’s fabled foods, such as salmon roe, sea urchin, crab, mutton, potatoes, corn, cheese, and milk (plus the associated ice cream) captured first place in the food category as well, and Hokkaido ranked third as a place where respondents said they’d like to live.

▼ Goryokaku, the star-shaped fort of Hokkaido’s port town of Hakodate

Hokkaido is already one of Japan’s most popular tourism destinations for domestic travelers, but do the survey’s results mean we should expect a population shift as people move there en masse? Probably not. It’s important to keep in mind that the survey’s focus is on the “attractiveness” or appeal of Japan’s prefectures. The questions aren’t designed to ask people to evaluate the prefecture they actually live in, but rather to speculate about where they think they’d like to live, sightsee, etc. As such, it’d be going too far to say, for example, that Hokkaido is the best prefecture in Japan, and more accurate to say that the top-ranking prefectures in the list are places with a lot of potential to make you happy you spent time in them.

Source: Brand Research Institute
Top image: Pakutaso
Goryokaku photo: Wikipedia/京浜にけ
Images ©SoraNews24
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