The 47 prefectures have been in place since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but the system is seen as increasingly obsolete amid the vast demographic changes Japan has had since the war.

The changes include a major population shift from rural to urban areas and, more recently, a declining birthrate and rapidly aging society.

Plans are advancing at the central and local government level to end the prefectural system and reorganize Japan into roughly a dozen super-states.