From our other sites
The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (a general live-chat board) asked which of Tokyo’s 23 wards has the lowest name recognition nationwide. After a resident of Katsushika Ward kicked things off by citing the strength of the manga “Kochikame,” someone posted a ranking of nationwide name recognition from S down to C, and opinions split over how Meguro, Koto, and Bunkyo wards should be rated. Some argued Nerima Ward is actually quite well-known simply because “you see it on license plates,” while others pointed out that the “brand” of upscale neighborhoods like Den-en-chofu and Seijo is a separate matter from the name recognition of the ward itself — with the discussion frequently talking past itself over just what criteria should even be used to judge a ward.
What people said
(FYI, I'm from Katsushika)
It's basically half Saitama Prefecture at this point 🥺
Kochikame (the long-running manga/anime set there) is just too strong
S
Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Setagaya, Nerima, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Katsushika, Adachi, Shinagawa
A
Taito
Sumida
Itabashi
B
Edogawa
Suginami
Ota
Arakawa
C
Koto
Meguro
Bunkyo
Uh, I don't see Kita Ward anywhere though?
No way Koto and Meguro belong down in C
Bunkyo's full of genuinely old-money types who don't even want to be associated with the 'Tokyo' brand, so they just quietly keep to themselves
Saitama: "We border a huge stretch of Tokyo"
Kanagawa: "Kawasaki borders Ota Ward"
Chiba: "We actually border Saitama more than we border Tokyo"
There's also Tora-san (the classic film series) and Captain Tsubasa, you know
I think the point is Kochikame is so strong it pushes even those into the background
Like, how many people walking around Osaka or Sendai could actually point to where Meguro or Koto Ward is?
Taito and Sumida are even worse on that front, honestly
Location-wise, outside of Chiyoda right in the middle, most people have no idea where any of these wards actually are
Where Ueno/Asakusa is, and where Tokyo Skytree is —
those two are solid
Ouch, got hit with that fireball-straight comeback (a famously blunt, no-mercy retort)
Even so, people still won't know exactly where those places are.
The Imperial Palace is about the only one anyone can actually place
They probably do swing by Odaiba though
Koto Ward has Tokyo Big Sight
That's Musashino City
Outside the 23 wards — lower tier, sorry
Among the residential wards on the west side, it's not losing to Setagaya or Suginami in land area, but it feels like it's losing way too badly on name value
It's actually pretty well-known —
it's even a name you see on license plates
There's no Japanese person alive who doesn't know the name 'Nerima'
It's probably more of a 'you see it on car license plates' kind of famous —
you spot it a lot even out on trips
Shibuya, on the other hand, is underrated if anything
Probably just people who've never actually lived in Tokyo and picked up bits and pieces online
Shibuya really is way too underrated
It's like people only picture Shibuya Station and stop there
Do you think Setagaya's status is low or something?
Den-en-chofu is technically in Ota Ward, if anything
let's talk more about places like Sumida or Taito Ward
Fair point
Let's talk about Kita Ward —
it's got a station people call a 'landlocked island'
If Taito Ward just renamed itself Ueno Ward or Asakusa Ward, it'd instantly become A-list famous
they're basically just suburbs now
If you're near the station, Seijo's not bad since it connects straight through on the Chiyoda Line, but sadly most of it is detached houses far from the station
It's still a fact that land prices there remain high
Background and Key Points of This Debate
There’s no official metric for “nationwide name recognition,” so when people try to rank wards from S down to C, criteria like population, land area, personal visits, and exposure through TV or anime all get mixed together — which is exactly why opinions clash over where each ward should land. In the thread, several posters questioned whether Meguro, Koto, and Bunkyo wards were being “overrated” or “underrated,” which seems to stem from conflating two different axes: one being economic factors like land prices or “lots of wealthy residents,” and the other being plain name recognition — simply whether people have heard of the name. Nerima Ward was cited as an example of a ward that built recognition through a completely different channel than population or tourist draw: showing up nationwide as a name on car license plates. On the other hand, in cases like Koto Ward’s Tokyo Big Sight or Taito Ward’s Ueno and Asakusa, the facility or place name itself is often more widely known than the ward’s own name — meaning “name recognition of the ward” and “name recognition of famous spots within the ward” don’t always line up, which is an easy point for readers to conflate. Note that the thread also touched on some unverified claims about a particular ward mayor’s political stance; since these couldn’t be fact-checked, they’ve been left out of this article.
※This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (“Nandemo Jikkyo G”) thread “The Tokyo ward that gets met with ‘Wait… what? Which ward…?’.”
Leave a Reply