In February 2006, the Japan Castle Foundation released a list of the Top 100 castles in Japan. Selection was based on: #Important cultural or historical artifacts #The setting for important historical events #Representative castles from each historical period and region #At least one castle from each prefecture, but no more than 5 At some point they started calling the list "100 Fine Castles of Japan" in English which may be more appropriate. With the above criteria, they are certainly not the best 100. It is mainly a tourism and awareness campaign to bring recognition to famous castles evenly distributed around the country in each prefecture. There is also a Continued 100 Fine Castles list to further your castle explorations. All 100 castles in the list are documented on this site and linked below.
Top 100 Castles
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