Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Fukushima... Japan's administrative unit that corresponds to a large-scale local government in Korea is a prefecture.
However, there are four exceptions. The capital, Tokyo, combines the 23 wards in the center and 26 surrounding cities as Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The city (city) and the surrounding areas are added together, and each is called a bu (府).
The northernmost Hokkaido is a province instead of a single metropolitan administrative area.
There are a total of 47 such metropolitan municipalities in Japan, so they are often referred to as '47 prefectures'.
There are a total of 17, which is 30 more than the metropolitan local governments in Korea, so when I was just starting out as a correspondent, it was a habit to always look up a map when an accident occurred in Japan. The name is unfamiliar, and because all Japanese media use Chinese characters, it was not easy to memorize the individual sounds. I'm used to it now, but I still get confused every time I use the kanji for some prefectures. This is especially true if there are Chinese characters that are not used in Korea.
This is the reason why I suddenly came up with a Japanese geography. The 'Brand Research Institute', a private think tank in Tokyo, Japan, announces a brand image survey targeting 47 metropolitan and regional governments every year at this time of year. Because it becomes a topic of discussion. This survey started in 2006 and is now in its 16th year. It is said that each local government is surveyed with 89 items including awareness and attractiveness. The company's website states that this year's survey was conducted from July 5 to 20 on 35,489 male and female consumers in their 20s to 70s across Japan through an Internet survey.
To put it simply, it is the result of a 'popularity vote' conducted once a year for 47 local governments in Japan. As data has been accumulated for 16 years, more and more words are coming out around the results of this attractiveness survey year after year. Of course, 'No. 1' seems to be the most interested, but in reality, Hokkaido (73.4 points) has been holding the No. It would be a big topic if Hokkaido gave up the first place to other local governments, but it is not easy to overcome Hokkaido's stronghold as it is the first place with a gap of nearly 20 points with Kyoto Prefecture, which is in second place (56.4 points). Kyoto Prefecture has also maintained the undisputed 2nd place for 13 years, and the local government closely following it is Okinawa (54.4 points). As those who are interested in Japan will guess, this ranking can also be interpreted as an answer to the question 'Where would you like to go when you travel?' Hokkaido, Kyoto, and Okinawa are all top tourist destinations in Japan. In fourth place is Tokyo (47.5 points), and in fifth place is Osaka Prefecture (42.0 points). Here's this year's leaderboard:
The one that is as interesting as the first is the lowest. Every year, the Japanese media's attention is more focused on this side than the top ranks, which don't change much in the rankings. This year, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, ranked the lowest with 11.6 points. Second from the bottom is Saga Prefecture in Kyushu with a score of 12.8, followed by Saitama Prefecture in the metropolitan area with a score of 14.4. Tochigi Prefecture, which ranked last last year, jumped to 41st this year. Ibaraki Prefecture, which ranked the lowest this year, was originally a 'last specialty'. The low-ranking local governments are saying that most of the more than 35,000 Japanese answered 'there is no attraction at all'.
What is interesting is the reaction of these lower-level municipalities. At a press conference on the 11th, Governor Oikawa of Ibaraki Prefecture, who is familiar with last place, gave a response like a question-and-answer, saying, "There are many ways to interpret charm, and each of them is unique." Governor Oikawa officially said, "We will take this result seriously and work hard to increase its attractiveness," but when it comes to ranking at the bottom again this year, "I think [the research company] had drawn up such a scenario in advance." Because that's the most fun." Governor Yamaguchi of Saga Prefecture, who is second from last, said, "The good thing about Saga Prefecture is that it has many returning visitors.He showed a very textbook reaction.
However, the reaction of Gunma Prefecture, which ranked 44th, drew a lot of attention from the Japanese media. Governor Yamamoto of Gunma Prefecture responded to his blog on the 10th, the day after the results of the investigation were announced, saying, "There is no reason to be swayed by an unclear ranking." He also held a temporary press conference on the 12th and said, "We have set up a response team and started reviewing, including legal action." Regarding the ranking from 40th to 44th in the last year's survey, he criticized, "It is not clear why the ranking has gone down since last year, but this survey is spreading the wrong perception that Gunma Prefecture is not attractive." We also did not forget to point out that this ranking announcement hurts the pride of the residents of Gunma Prefecture and that it leads to economic losses such as tourism. Governor Yamamoto also actively responded to a TV interview and spoke out in a strong tone of the 'depression' of the lower ranks. In fact, it showed a more nervous reaction than Ibaraki Prefecture, which is 'last in attractiveness'.
The Brand Research Institute, which conducted the survey, also responded that it was somewhat absurd. Yesterday (14th), CEO Tanaka of the institute requested an apology from Governor Yamamoto, saying, "It is a slander and slander against our company and those who responded to the survey." Asahi Shimbun reported that the basis for the ranking selection, which Governor Yamamoto pointed out as unclear, was clearly stated in the result report.
Then why did the governor of Gunma prefecture react so strongly, even though he was not the last? It doesn't seem like he even mentioned 'legal response' out of anger at the fact that the rankings have simply dropped from last year. As the governor mentioned at the press conference, the core of the backlash is linked to the tourism industry, that is, the economy of local governments. As the Corona situation in Japan, where the number of new confirmed cases exceeded 20,000 a day in August, has recently calmed down to three digits, the newly inaugurated Kishida administration is fiddling with ways to revitalize the domestic economy. The most representative of these is 'Go To Travel', a travel promotion policy that was briefly implemented last year but was abruptly halted due to the fourth wave of Corona. After all of the Corona emergency was lifted across Japan from October and business restrictions at restaurants were significantly eased, the floating population in each region is recovering back to pre-fifth epidemics. There are also observations that the re-implementation of the promotion policy, in which the state supports half of the travel expenses, is imminent. Gunma Prefecture's backlash seems to be rightly viewed as anger at the results of this investigation, which may pour cold water on the revitalization of local tourism at a time when travel demand, which has been suppressed, is likely to explode again.