Arab News Japan

TOKYO: While many people gravitate towards Tokyo from other prefectures in Japan, it is the country’s most remote prefecture that is the most popular.

Diamond magazine recently reported on the annual “prefecture attractiveness ranking” where Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture, has topped the rankings for 13 straight years.

The ranking is made up of responses from 35,489 consumers across the 47 prefectures and 1,000 municipalities of Japan.

Hokkaido (73.4 points) ranked top in the prefectural attractiveness ranking in 2021, with Kyoto Prefecture (56.4 points) in second place, Okinawa Prefecture (54.4 points) in third place, and Tokyo (47.5 points) in fourth place. 

The attractiveness score was 73.4 points, an increase of 12.6 points from the previous year, further widening the gap with the subsequent prefectures. Kyoto Prefecture has come second in the poll every year that Hokkaido has won it. Osaka Prefecture came in fifth this year with 42.0 points, up more than 10 points from the previous year. 

Ibaraki Prefecture, a largely rural region bordering the Pacific Ocean was once again ranked bottom. Chiba Prefecture, which lies to the south of Ibaraki Prefecture but also borders Tokyo,had the largest increase in points after Tokyo, and its ranking jumped from 21st place in the previous year to 12th place. Tochigi Prefecture managed to drag itself off the bottom to rank 41st (16.2 points).

The bottom three were Tokyo’s neighbor to the north, Saitama Prefecture (14.4 points) at 45th place, Saga prefecture in the west (12.8 points) at 46th place, and Ibaraki prefecture (11.6 points) at 47th place.