Japan’s prefectural flags
Forty-seven prefectures, nearly all flying a single abstract emblem on a plain field, many of them a stylised character from the prefecture’s own name.
47 flagsShort notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
Japanese prefectural flags follow a house style unlike anywhere else: one simple emblem, often in white, on a single colour. The emblems work like family crests (mon), and many are a character or kana from the prefecture’s name bent into a shape that also suggests a bird, a mountain or a flower. Many were adopted in the 1960s.
Hokkaido
Hokkaido
A red seven-pointed star edged in white, on dark blue: the star of the 19th-century settlement office.
Tōhoku
Aomori
A green outline map of the prefecture, on white.
Iwate
Miyagi
Akita
Yamagata
Fukushima
Kantō
Ibaraki
Tochigi
Gunma
Saitama
A ring of sixteen magatama, the curved beads of ancient Japan, forming a sun.
Chiba
Tokyo
Edo purple, with a white six-rayed sun emblem.
Kanagawa
A stylised 神, the first character of Kanagawa’s name.
Chūbu
Niigata
Toyama
Ishikawa
Fukui
Yamanashi
Nagano
Gifu
Shizuoka
Aichi
Kansai
Mie
Shiga
Kyoto
Osaka
A stylised gourd, the battle standard of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who built Osaka Castle.
Hyogo
Nara
Wakayama
Chūgoku
Tottori
Shimane
Okayama
Hiroshima
Yamaguchi
Shikoku
Tokushima
Kagawa
Ehime
Kochi
Kyushu and Okinawa
Fukuoka
A stylised plum blossom, the prefecture’s flower.
Saga
Nagasaki
Kumamoto
Oita
Miyazaki
Kagoshima
On the globe
JapanMore flags
- Australia’s state and territory flags
- Brazil’s state flags
- Canada’s provincial and territorial flags
- Flags of autonomous regions and islands
- Flags of disputed territories
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- Flags of international organizations
- Flags of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies
- Flags of the Dutch Caribbean
- France’s regional and overseas flags
- Germany’s state flags
- Italy’s regional flags
- Liberia’s county flags
- Mexico’s state flags
- Russia’s regional flags
- Spain’s regional flags
- U.S. state flags