Oct 17, 2025
Prefectural attractiveness rankings for 2025
As someone who loves to travel, and having visited almost all of Japan's prefectures, I always find it interesting to check out the prefectural attractiveness rankings for the year. 2025's rankings were released recently, and Hokkaido took out top spot. They were also in top spot for 2024, so there's no huge surprise there.
My own prefecture of Niigata was 28th, so fairly middle of the road.
In last place was Saitama, but I think fellow City-Cost blogger @BigFamJapan would very much disagree with that ranking! I would recommend checking out some of her posts to see the wealth of beauty that the prefecture offers.
I'm firmly of the belief that every region of Japan has something beautiful to offer, and what is one person's cup of tea might not be someone else's, so that plays into it as well.
I've linked the list above, but how did your prefecture score?
3 Comments
TonetoEdo
on Oct 17
The prefecture I live in, Chiba, is ranked in the top 20, and it's right next door. I'd say Saitama beats Chiba for mountains and well-preserved Edo-era towns. I'm thinking Chichibu and Kawagoe. I guess the attractiveness rating depends on effective promotion.
genkidesu
on Oct 17
@TonetoEdo agreed. I also think the proximity principle comes into it. For instance, if you asked me what prefecture is the most attractive, I'd probably immediately think of vacation-y destinations rather than ones that are right next door. I can understand how Ibaraki and Saitama could have succumbed to that line of thinking from people based in Tokyo.
BigfamJapan
on Oct 17
I am not surprised, yet I am surprised!! It's always in the bottom five, so in that sense not a shock, but I've never understood/ always surprised that Saitama does so poorly. At least I guess I don't have to worry about mass tourism and the knock on effects of that when planning my trips in Saitama!