This survey by goo Ranking into which Japanese prefectures Japanese wish they had been born and brought up in was conducted last year, but they only got round to publishing it a few days ago.

Not surprisingly, Tokyo is the most popular, and I presume people were mostly voting for the main metropolitan area, not the suburbs. Hokkaido being second is not a surprise either, although the winters are too harsh for my tastes. Kanagawa, in particular the prefectural capital of Yokohama, is the best of the top three for me. The photo above is apparently from Yokohama, although a bit before my time.

If I had been brought up in Japan, I’d want it to have been Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture (9th here), as it’s a compact city with easy access to the countryside, and for a long time has been very international.

If you had been born in Japan, where you would you choose?

Ranking result

Q: Which prefecture do you wish you had been born and brought up in? (Sample size=2,775)

Rank	Prefecture	Votes
1	Tokyo	456
2	Hokkaido	347
3	Kanagawa	219
4	Okinawa	204
5	Osaka	192
6	Kyoto	190
7	Fukuoka	148
8	Chiba	70
9	Hyogo	68
10	Saitama	62
11	Nagano	61
12	Aichi	60
13	Shizuoka	56
14	Miyagi	52
15	Hiroshima	40
16	Akita	34
17	Niigata	31
18	Nara	30
19	Toyama	25
20	Fukushima	24
21	Iwate	23
21	Tochigi	23
23	Aomori	21
24	Wakayama	19
24	Okayama	19
24	Kagawa	19
24	Kagoshima	19
28	Ibaraki	18
28	Ishikawa	18
30	Gunma	17
30	Kumamoto	17
32	Yamagata	16
32	Fukui	16
34	Shimane	14
34	Ehime	14
34	Nagasaki	14
37	Gifu	13
37	Mie	13
37	Tottori	13
40	Oita	12
41	Yamaguchi	11
41	Tokushima	11
43	Shiga	10
43	Miyazaki	10
45	Kochi	9
45	Saga	9
47	Yamanashi	8

Demographics

Between the 14th and the 28th of May 2020 2,775 visits to goo Ranking services completed a public questionnaire. No further demographics were given.