Honshu:

• Tohoku - north-eastern Honshu in which Sendai and Fukushima are large cities.
• Kanto - includes Tokyo, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and surrounding coastal plain. Also includes Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tochigi, and Ibaraki Prefectures.
• Chubu - mountainous middle region dominated by the Japanese Alps. The Sea of Japan side is the Hokuriku region, and the Pacific side is the Tokai region. The main cities of Hokuriku are Niigata and Kanazawa, and the main cities of Tokai are Nagoya (the nation's fourth largest) and Shizuoka.
• Kinki or Kansai region - ancient center of culture and commerce, including Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Wakayama, Shiga and Mie Prefectures.
• Chugoku - includes the cities Hiroshima and Okayama.

Other islands:

• Hokkaido - major cities are Sapporo and Hakodate.
• Shikoku - the smallest of the main four islands, known as a destination for Buddhist pilgrims. The main cities are Matsuyama and Takamatsu.
• Kyushu - southernmost of the four main islands. The main towns include Fukuoka, Kitakyushu and Nagasaki.
• Okinawa - semitropical southern island chain reaching out to Taiwan. The only major city is Naha.