Prefecture Brand Power

Great! This is LEGO SHIBUYA. Look at this! Can you believe this is LEGO? They didn't miss the Hachiko! (what is Hachi?)｡｡Here is Asakusa too. 見てみたい！

Japan has 47 prefectures and maybe around 700 cities. Do you know some? Can you tell some city names? Usually Japanese can tell all prefectures but it is not an easy job.　Nikkei Reserch has released an interesting report: 'The ranking of prefecture brand power in Japan'. They made the ranking from results of a survey on various points like recognizability, people's will to visit, will to live, uniqueness, etc. Here is the result.
1.Hokkaido
2.Kyoto
3.Okinawa
4.Osaka
5.Tokyo
6.Kanagawa
7.Hyogo
8.Fukuoka
9.Kagoshima
10.Nara
Hokkaido has the greatest quality and quantity of nature in Japan, and it is rich with good foods (not particularly cooking, just materials like sea foods or potatoes) but as brand value. I thought Kyoto (as the most historical place) or Okinawa (unique foods and warm nice weather, unique culture from their independent or occupied history) would be No.1.

But on 'The ranking of city brand power', Kyoto is No1 and No2. is Yokohama. Here is the results.
1.Kyoto (Kyoto)
2.Yokohama (Kanagawa)
3.Kobe (Hyogo)
4.Sapporo (Hokkaido)
5.Kamakura (Kanagawa)
6.Hakodate (Hokkaido)
7.Uji (Kyoto)
8.Fukuoka (Fukuoka)
9.Nagasaki (Nagasaki)
10.Furano (Hokkaido)
Kyoto, Kanagawa and Hokkaido are each powerful cities. Most of them are old historical places and also they had important ports for trading with foreign countries.

And they told the worst prefecture too: it was Tochigi. Do you know Tochigi prefecture? Do you know where it is? Tochigi is in the Kanto area above Saitama. Actually Japanese know about Nikko but they don't know Nikko is in Tochigi. I must agree Tochigi is a much less impressive pref. Then the Tochigi Association of corporations asked for ideas about a Tochigi catch-phrase. Well, the strongest one would be 'forgotten prefecture'.

Anyway, when I checked the wikipedia, I found this post : 'List of records of Japan'. I didn't know Japan has some interesting world records. The oldest hotel in the world: Hoshi, Komatsu, Ishikawa, opened in 718 The largest tomb in the world: Nintokuryo Tomb, Sakai, Osaka, 46ha. The tallest statue in the world: Ushiku Daibutsu, Ushiku, Ibaraki, 120m. Theme park with the most visitors in the world: Tokyo Disneyland, Urayasu, Chiba.

I can tell the 50 states of the U.S.A (actually when I drink with my friends, it can be a good game to tell the names of the states). I tend to forget Rhode Island, Delaware and Vermont.

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[mari]

I like Tochigi, their strawberry is very nice!! Tochiotome!

[tornados28]

Those that say Tochigi is the worst are idiots. I've been to enough prefectures to know. I guess if you don't like rural areas and rice fields surrounded by beautiful mountains then I guess you would not like Tochigi.