Editing Prefectures of Japan (section)

===By Japanese ISO===
<!--Linked from [[Japan]] (Fg2, 28 June 2006)-->
The prefectures are also often grouped into eight [[Regions of Japan|regions]] (地方, ''chihō''). Those regions are not formally specified, they do not have elected officials, nor are they corporate bodies. But the practice of ordering prefectures based on their geographic region is traditional.<ref name="nussbaum780"/> This ordering is mirrored in Japan's [[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO) coding.<ref>See [[ISO 3166]]</ref> From north to south (numbering in [[ISO 3166-2:JP]] order), the prefectures of Japan and their commonly associated regions are:

{{div col|colwidth=10em}}
* [[Hokkaido|Hokkaidō]] {{ordered list|[[Hokkaido|Hokkaidō]]}}
* [[Tōhoku region|Tōhoku]] {{ordered list|start=2|[[Aomori Prefecture|Aomori]]|[[Iwate Prefecture|Iwate]]|[[Miyagi Prefecture|Miyagi]]|[[Akita Prefecture|Akita]]|[[Yamagata Prefecture|Yamagata]]|[[Fukushima Prefecture|Fukushima]]}}
* [[Kantō region|Kantō]] {{ordered list|start=8|[[Ibaraki Prefecture|Ibaraki]]|[[Tochigi Prefecture|Tochigi]]|[[Gunma Prefecture|Gunma]]|[[Saitama Prefecture|Saitama]]|[[Chiba Prefecture|Chiba]]|[[Tokyo|Tōkyō]]|[[Kanagawa Prefecture|Kanagawa]]}}
* [[Chūbu region|Chūbu]] {{ordered list|start=15|[[Niigata Prefecture|Niigata]]|[[Toyama Prefecture|Toyama]]|[[Ishikawa Prefecture|Ishikawa]]|[[Fukui Prefecture|Fukui]]|[[Yamanashi Prefecture|Yamanashi]]|[[Nagano Prefecture|Nagano]]|[[Gifu Prefecture|Gifu]]|[[Shizuoka Prefecture|Shizuoka]]|[[Aichi Prefecture|Aichi]]}}
* [[Kansai region|Kansai]]{{Efn|It is sometimes expressed as '''"Kinki"'''.}}　　 {{ordered list|start=24|[[Mie Prefecture|Mie]]|[[Shiga Prefecture|Shiga]]|[[Kyoto Prefecture|Kyōto]]|[[Osaka Prefecture|Ōsaka]]|[[Hyōgo Prefecture|Hyōgo]]|[[Nara Prefecture|Nara]]|[[Wakayama Prefecture|Wakayama]]}}
* [[Chūgoku region|Chūgoku]] {{ordered list|start=31|[[Tottori Prefecture|Tottori]]|[[Shimane Prefecture|Shimane]]|[[Okayama Prefecture|Okayama]]|[[Hiroshima Prefecture|Hiroshima]]|[[Yamaguchi Prefecture|Yamaguchi]]}}
* [[Shikoku]] {{ordered list|start=36|[[Tokushima Prefecture|Tokushima]]|[[Kagawa Prefecture|Kagawa]]|[[Ehime Prefecture|Ehime]]|[[Kōchi Prefecture|Kōchi]]}}
* [[Kyushu|Kyūshū]] {{ordered list|start=40|[[Fukuoka Prefecture|Fukuoka]]|[[Saga Prefecture|Saga]]|[[Nagasaki Prefecture|Nagasaki]]|[[Kumamoto Prefecture|Kumamoto]]|[[Ōita Prefecture|Ōita]]|[[Miyazaki Prefecture|Miyazaki]]|[[Kagoshima Prefecture|Kagoshima]]}}
* [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryūkyū Islands]] {{ordered list|start=47|[[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]]}}
{{div col end}}