Do you know Japan’s Kinki region?
Kinki is a region spreading across the central-to-western part of Honshu, Japan’s largest island.
This article introduces Kinki as consisting of 7 prefectures: Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama.
Alongside a major city like Osaka, Kyoto and Nara retain old townscapes and temples. Shiga Prefecture is home to Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, and the region also has mountain towns and coastal towns.
A school near an old townscape.
A path to school running through a lively city.
A school building with mountains in view.
A school near a lake or the sea.
In Kinki, you can see different school scenes depending on the place.
Today, the number of schools in Kinki is changing.
This time, using data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “School Basic Survey,” we made a map that lets you compare the number of elementary, junior high, and high schools in Kinki at 3 points in time: 1965, 1990, and 2024.
Why don’t you take a look, together with me, at how the number of schools in Kinki has changed, using the map?
Kinki’s School Count Change Map
This article treats Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama prefectures as making up Kinki.
Use the buttons at the top of the map to switch between elementary, junior high, and high schools, and between 1965, 1990, and 2024.
The size of each circle on the map represents the number of schools. The color shows how the number of schools has changed compared to 1965.
Select the circle for a prefecture you’re curious about to see the total number of schools, the number of main and branch schools, and the breakdown by national, public, and private.
If you’d like to see all of Japan, select “All Japan.”
About the map data
This map was compiled and mapped by Visible World by Data, based on data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “School Basic Survey.”
School counts include both main schools and branch schools.
For high schools, this map shows full-time and part-time schools. Schools that are correspondence-only are not included.
1965 covers 46 prefectures, excluding Okinawa; 1990 and 2024 cover all 47 prefectures. Kinki’s 7 prefectures are included in the survey at all 3 points in time.
Comparing school counts in Japan and Kinki
The data card lets you compare the number of schools in Japan as a whole and in Kinki’s 7 prefectures at 3 points in time: 1965, 1990, and 2024.
Use the buttons at the top to switch between elementary, junior high, and high schools.
Elementary schools in Kinki increased from 3,304 in 1965 to 3,771 in 1990, then fell to 3,077 in 2024.
Junior high schools increased from 1,427 in 1965 to 1,692 in 1990, then fell to 1,572 in 2024.
High schools increased from 681 in 1965 to 873 in 1990, then fell to 779 in 2024.
After checking the numbers for Kinki, take a look at the change across Japan as a whole, and the differences among the 7 prefectures, on the map as well.
What I noticed while making this map
In Kinki, elementary, junior high, and high schools all increased from 1965 to 1990.
After that, all three decreased toward 2024, but junior high and high schools are still above their 1965 numbers.
Elementary schools are also only slightly below their 1965 number, and what stood out to me was that the decrease for the region as a whole is relatively small.
You may be curious about how the number of schools has changed in your own country, too.
Why not use the map to compare those trends with changes in Kinki?
Let’s look at school counts across Japan
In the regional articles, you can look more closely at the change in school numbers using an enlarged map and data card for each region.
Source: Compiled from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “School Basic Survey” (e-Stat)
※ School counts include both main schools and branch schools.
※ The high school counts include full-time and part-time schools.
※ Kinki is the total of Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama prefectures.