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The story
A thread titled ‘Wakayama Prefecture has nothing but mandarins and Nanko plums’ was posted on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board. In response to the pessimistic post, rebuttals poured in citing the prefecture’s tourism draws and specialty products — the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail, the Kumano Sanzan shrines, kue grouper and tuna fishing, a beach where visitors can swim with whales, and the nation’s top production of sansho pepper and figs. Still, opinions split on how to view Wakayama’s appeal, with some pointing out that ‘topping production rankings doesn’t mean it has any brand power’ and others self-deprecatingly agreeing that ‘in the end it’s sad that there’s really nothing there.’ The conversation even veered into a comparison with Fukui Prefecture as a fellow ‘unremarkable prefecture,’ sparking the kind of lively back-and-forth typical of these regional-rivalry threads.
What people said
Is there anything about Wakayama's seafood besides the whale (dolphin) image?
Things like kue (longtooth grouper) and tuna
Kind of late to notice, but your ID looks like 'Wakayama Bokusui' (a famous poet)
Isn't that just a cultivar though?
Like how Someiyoshino (a cherry blossom variety) is famous?
No idea where Asakura even is for Asakura sansho (another pepper variety)
Doesn't that actually make it sadder? Like that's really all there is
What's your hometown got then?
Nothing there — there's no point going to Wakayama in the first place
You sound like you live in Saitama
Shiga: Takanori Nishikawa (T.M.Revolution)
Take a boat offshore and with luck you can spot wild whales too
If you're a baseball fan, you can talk directly with the man himself at the Hiromitsu Ochiai Memorial Hall
For at least a few minutes
Don't butt in if you've never felt the awkward silence I get when I admit I'm from Fukui
What do you mean
You've got Lake Kuzuryu and the nuclear plant
Take a boat offshore and with luck you can spot wild whales too
If you're a baseball fan, you can talk directly with the man himself at the Hiromitsu Ochiai Memorial Hall
That happens 2-3 times a year too
For at least a few minutes
Fukui's the one whose existence actually gets forgotten
You've got glasses (Fukui's Sabae is famous for eyewear manufacturing)
Heizo Takenaka
Plenty of talent
Throw in Seko too
He's basically running Kindai University
No, actually, I'm from Wakayama
Wakayama's got killer names too, like streamer Jun'ichi Kato
Fukui's hopeless anyway…
It's the difference in surrounding population
Even down on its luck, Wakayama's still part of Kansai
Is bragging about quantity all there is?
A lot of plum products advertise themselves as using Wakayama's Nanko plums
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Wakayama Prefecture ranks first nationwide in production of dried figs and sansho pepper, and beyond agricultural products like Nanko plums and Arida mandarins, it’s also rich in tourism resources — the UNESCO World Heritage Kumano Kodo trail and Kumano Sanzan shrines, prized fish like kue grouper and tuna, and a beach where visitors can swim alongside whales. The thread title’s claim that the prefecture has ‘nothing but mandarins and Nanko plums’ is really just self-deprecating bait, and as the many rebuttals in the replies show, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Where opinion diverged was on the point that topping the production charts doesn’t translate directly into name recognition or brand power — revealing a gap between Wakayama’s number-one rankings and how well the public actually knows about them. The thread also brought up a comparison with Fukui Prefecture, similarly seen as ‘unremarkable,’ but this is best understood as a familiar recurring bit on 5ch — regional-rivalry banter — rather than a genuine dig at either prefecture.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] ‘Wakayama Prefecture’ Has Nothing But Mandarins and Nanko Plums.”
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