Do you know the Kanto region, home to Tokyo?
Kanto is a region located on the eastern side of Honshu, Japan’s largest island.
It consists of 7 prefectures: Tokyo, Japan’s capital, along with Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa.
Large cities and residential areas spread out around Tokyo, but Kanto also has areas of wide farmland, mountain towns, and coastal towns facing the Pacific Ocean.
A school surrounded by tall buildings.
A path to school running through a residential neighborhood.
A school building near the mountains or the sea.
In Kanto, you can see different school scenes even within the same region, depending on the place.
Today, the number of schools in Kanto 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 Kanto 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 Kanto has changed, using the map?
Kanto’s School Count Change Map
This article treats Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, and Kanagawa prefectures as making up Kanto.
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. Kanto’s 7 prefectures are included in the survey at all 3 points in time.
Comparing school counts in Japan and Kanto
The data card lets you compare the number of schools in Japan as a whole and in Kanto’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 Kanto increased from 4,249 in 1965 to 5,442 in 1990, then fell to 4,830 in 2024.
Junior high schools increased from 2,232 in 1965 to 2,748 in 1990, then fell to 2,639 in 2024.
High schools increased from 1,019 in 1965 to 1,445 in 1990, then fell to 1,298 in 2024.
All three decreased between 1990 and 2024, but the number of schools in 2024 is still higher than in 1965.
After checking the numbers for Kanto, take a look at the change across Japan as a whole, and the differences among Kanto’s prefectures, on the map as well.
What I noticed while making this map
In Kanto, elementary, junior high, and high schools all increased from 1965 to 1990.
After that, all three decreased toward 2024, but the number of schools remains higher than in 1965.
What stood out to me was a pattern of change different from the national trend.
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 Kanto?
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.
※ Kanto is the total of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, and Kanagawa prefectures.