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A survey has revealed that Japan’s happiest prefecture is Okinawa for the second year in a row. In late May, the Brand Research Institute’s 2022 Survey asked people aged 15 and up living in Japan’s 47 prefectures how happy they were.
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Around 500 residents were surveyed in each prefecture, for a total of about 23,000 participants in the country. Their answers were used to calculate a “happiness score” for each prefecture.
(1)Have you traveled around Okinawa Prefecture? If so, what parts do you like best? If not, would you like to?
(2)Are there any parts of your country that you could never live in?
3. Okinawa had the highest happiness score. Out of the participants surveyed there, around 42% said they were “very happy” and 36% said they were “a little happy.” Fewer than 3% said they were “not happy at all.”
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Okinawa Prefecture is made up of more than 160 islands, and is known for its beautiful scenery, coral reefs and tropical climate. According to Nikkei Asia, the prefecture welcomed over 10 million visitors in 2019, the same number as Hawaii in the same year.
(1)Have you lived in many different towns or cities? Which did you like best?
(2)What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of living in a big city?
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The second happiest prefecture was found to be Kagoshima, while Miyazaki was third. Both of these prefectures are in the warmer and southern part of Japan close to Okinawa. The least happy places were found to be closer to the capital. Tokyo was 46th on the list, while its neighbors Kanagawa and Chiba were 45th and 44th.
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However, the least happy prefecture in 2022 was Akita, in the north of Japan, at 47th. The March 2022 World Happiness Report found that Japan was 54th out of 146 countries on its list of the happiest nations — making Japan one of the lowest among the world’s developed countries.
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