Amateur radio operators of Japan have provided me with much joy and pleasure from the very first year of my foray into this hobby nearly four decades ago. The contacts (QSOs) with Japan account for more than 60% of my total QSOs from India with my callsign VU2ABE and the number crossed the 12,000-mark yesterday.
To celebrate this milestone and as a token of my gratitude to the hams of Japan and as a means of encouraging hams of other countries to have more QSOs with Japan, I have prepared the attached Excel listing of all current Japanese cities, guns, and kus as a free download.
Administrative divisions at the top level are called prefectures which are akin to states. Japan has 47 prefectures. Below the prefecture level, the administrative unit can be a city (“shi”), a district (“gun”), or a “ku” which is the subdivision or ward of a city.
As of date there are currently 815 cities, 379 guns, 171 kus. There are also 99 cities, 243 guns, and 13 kus that have been deleted over time on account of administrative reorganizations that have taken place.
The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) has various awards for confirmed contacts with cities and guns in multiples of hundred (JCC 100, JCC 200, … JCG 100, JCG 200, etc.)
JARL has also AJA (All Japan Award) awards in multiples of 250 for cities, guns, and kus combined. AJA 250, AJA 500, etc.
JARL has separate lists for all three categories on their website. So, why this list? The lists for cities and guns are in .txt format and that of kus is in .xls format. The list that has been created and attached combines all three categories into a single listing in the latest version of Excel in the .xlsx format. The list also includes deleted entities with their dates of deletion as contacts prior to the date of deletion are valid.
Using the in-built capabilities of Excel, it is possible to search or filter the database to find the exact information one
is looking for from different perspectives. These tools have been built into the downloadable Excel file so that hams can use it right away without having to spend time figuring out how to get the information they are looking for.
This has been a labor of love, and it is with great pleasure that I make this list available gratis to every “shinnichi” (親日) (Japanophile) wherever they may be found.
Thank you very much! Domo arigatou gozaimasu! どうもありがとうございます。JCC-JCG-KU List – Abie – AB1F – VU2ABE – 20240624
[Attached are QSL confirmatory cards received from a few of my enduring JA ham friends.]
