List of Japanese prefectures by population

This is a list of Japanese prefectures by population.

For details of administrative divisions of Japan, see Prefectures of Japan.

Figures here are according to the official estimates of Japan as of October 1, 2011, except for the census population held on October 1, 2010. Population is given according to the de jure population concept for enumerating the people. That is, a person was enumerated at the place where he or she usually lived, and was counted as the population of the area including the place. Ranks are given by the estimated population as of October 1, 2011.

Population before 1920 was calculated based on information of family registries (戸籍, koseki^?), while door-to-door censuses have been held every 5 years as of October 1 since 1920 in Japan except for the year of 1945.

As for prefectural population before 1945, prefectures that constituted official Japan Proper or Mainland Japan (内地, naichi^?, inner lands) are only given. Karafuto Prefecture (樺太府, Karafuto-fu^?) or Southern Sakhalin was officially incorporated into Japan Proper since March 26, 1943 until the end of the World War II, while Taiwan, Kwantung Leased Territory, Korea and South Pacific Mandate were treated as exterior territories (外地, gaichi^?, outer lands). At the end of war, Japan lost possessions of Southern Sakhalin (Karafuto-fu), Kuril Islands (part of Hokkaidō), Ogasawra Islands (part of Tōkyō-to), Amami and Tokara Islands (part of Kagoshima-ken), Daitō Islands and Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa-ken). For the population of the colonies of the former Empire of Japan, see Demographics of Imperial Japan.

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