Do you know Japan’s Chubu & Hokuriku region?
Chubu & Hokuriku is a region spreading across the central part of Honshu, Japan’s largest island.
There are several ways to divide Japan into regions, but this article introduces Chubu & Hokuriku as consisting of 6 prefectures: Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Aichi.
Toyama, Ishikawa, and Fukui face the Sea of Japan, while Gifu does not face the sea. Shizuoka and Aichi are located on the Pacific side.
Alongside a large city like Nagoya, the region also has mountain towns, coastal towns, and areas of wide farmland. Along the Sea of Japan coast, some areas receive heavy snowfall in winter.
Mountains still capped with snow.
Views looking out over the Sea of Japan or the Pacific Ocean.
A path to school running past tea fields and rice paddies.
A school building in the middle of a lively city.
In Chubu & Hokuriku, you can see different school scenes depending on the place.
Today, the number of schools in Chubu & Hokuriku 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 Chubu & Hokuriku 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 Chubu & Hokuriku has changed, using the map?
Chubu & Hokuriku’s School Count Change Map
This article treats Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Aichi prefectures as making up Chubu & Hokuriku.
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. Chubu & Hokuriku’s 6 prefectures are included in the survey at all 3 points in time.
Comparing school counts in Japan and Chubu & Hokuriku
The data card lets you compare the number of schools in Japan as a whole and in Chubu & Hokuriku’s 6 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 Chubu & Hokuriku went from 2,997 in 1965, to 2,781 in 1990, to 2,353 in 2024.
Junior high schools went from 1,266 in 1965, to 1,217 in 1990, to 1,142 in 2024.
High schools increased from 520 in 1965 to 645 in 1990, then fell to 576 in 2024.
After checking the numbers for Chubu & Hokuriku, take a look at the change across Japan as a whole, and the differences among the 6 prefectures, on the map as well.
What I noticed while making this map
In Chubu & Hokuriku, elementary and junior high schools have declined over the 3 years compared here.
Compared with the other regions covered so far, what stood out to me was that the decrease in junior high schools is especially small.
High schools, meanwhile, increased from 1965 to 1990 and have decreased since, but the 2024 count is still higher than in 1965.
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 Chubu & Hokuriku?
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.
※ Chubu & Hokuriku is the total of Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Aichi prefectures.