Kagawa starts campaign to 'change' name to Udon Prefecture

Thatcher tried to change the name of East Yorkshire to Humberside, peole would not accept the change and continued to address their mail accordingly.Her mistake was the failure to consult the electorate on the matter. If the inhabitants of Kagaa are egreeable to the name change then so be it, if not, scrap it Personaly I would not like my present location to be named after a popular food dish, imagine Wicklow changed to Boxtie

Why not go all the way and name it "Sanuki Udon" ken? I agree with a previous poster : nice PR stunt

Udonkusai.

I don't know if I would want to name a prefecture after a limp noodle.

I read this as "Udon prefecture wants to change it's name". And I was like, well no kidding, what a stupid name. Then I realized no such prefecture existed, so I clicked on this article. They want to change it TO udon? omg ....

Udon Prefecture as the vice Udon prefectural governor who was born in Udon Prefecture.

Too many "Udon" for me...

Nice PR stunt. Personally I would like to see Tokyo changed to Mickey Mouse To as long as Ishihara is the Governor.

Or how about Ramen Do or Kani Ken for Hokkaido!

tut, tut sorry I miss spelt the name Kagawa, too quick on the keyboard

Udon backwards = Nodu

Sorry, Kagawa folk - Udon is only so-so. Chinese Ramen is much better, especilly tan-tan men!

BTW - up in Fukushima, we are Momo-Ken. Just a shame we couldnt eat them this year...

@TokyoGas - many people say Akita-Ken is the centre for bijin...but I'd wager every prefecture would stake that claim! Heck - there are bijin everywhere in all 47 pref. in my mind!

I don't understand why "change" is in quotes in the headline. Is it supposed to be used ironically?

Even Kagawa Prefecture's soccer team's name is called Kamatamare Sanuki. Sanuki udon is Kagawa Prefecture's specialty udon.

The quotes indicate it is a marketing gimmick. Without the quotes, some readers might think the prefecture is serious.

I see. In that case it would seem more appropriate for "campaign" to be in quotes, not change, since it is a sham campaign...but what do I know.

Great Posts!

I'm from Goya-ken (^^)y

Christina - as a Shikoku local I can assure you I've heard the term "Kagaa" uttered / mumbled many times - especially by country folk(men).

And yes the Udon campaign is a humorous commercial attempt at attracting attention - and it's working. More udon tours = more money to the locals.

I like it. Sounds desperate, but really, would the locals or anybody else be against it if the prefecture was named "Udon"?

By the way, CrazyJoe, Sanuki used to be the name of the area before it became Kagawa that's why they named their soccer team that.

I'll have to try some Sanuki Udon next time I'm there.

I like this idea.

I love Sanuki udon!

What do you think? Would you live in Udon Prefecture?

Sure. What's in a name anyway?

Isn't one of the prefectures up north know for beautiful women? Maybe we could have a beautiful woman prefecture. bijin

THis one makes my day. Really amusing website for Udon-ken. Fukushima...just what should we call it? Mom-ken? Denki Momo-ken? Tough one there. Someone should make a map with mouse rollovers for nicknames for all the ken. That would be hilarious. Just having fun with this one.

I didn't enjoy living in Okonomiyaki-ken so much, but I do love Yatai-ken.

Where do I start, firstly you don't measure sites by hits... second any new website is going to be indexed by search engines nearly straight away.

Take 20% (very conservative) away for search engines....

leaves us 136,000 "hits"

Lets say the site has 20 pages, 20 elements per page (this is VERY conservative)

that is 400 hits per person visiting the site.

So 136,000 / 400 = 340 "people"

Over 6 days

57 people per day.

or 2 people per hour...

I'm sorry to burst their bubble...

Love it. I am from "Takoyaki" Prefecture.

Fukushima can become ラドコンヤキ

if so, adjacent prefectures should change their name to 'Seirogan'-S1, S2..(name of medicine for stomach ache)

I agree, in that case lets change ALL the prefectures names.... this is the most idiotic thing I have heard. If Ayhe residents from Kagawa ken decide to change it name, then who's next? Nagano, to SobaKen? Tochigi to GyouzaKen? it's sounds silly to me.

I have another one, YamaguchiKen to YakuzaKen....or AichiKen to AkamisoKen.....well if I even ad more how about IbarakiKen to HoushasenKen.

we can change osaka to tako prefecture

Kagawa or Udon, the fact that this is the deep province doesn't change.

maybe tokyo should become kukukawa prefecture, after the olympus ceo and chairman, i would be a great honor for him

I think every prefecture and special districts should change their names to a food name.

But Fukushima will have a tough choice.