Japan consists of 47 administrative units below their national government. These entities, called prefectures, are roughly analogous to states in the United States. The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) sponsors the Worked All Japan Prefectures Award (WAJA) for making contact with at least one Ham Radio operator in each of these prefectures.
Beyond the standard award applications you can also request up to three endorsements. This includes Bands (all contacts using a single band), Modes (all contacts using one mode), Satellites, QRP (5 watts or less) or QRPp (0.5 watts or less).
The JARL also issues the Heard All Japan Prefectures Award (HAJA) for Shortwave listeners (SWLs) who record reception of the same number of stations.
The certificate features a pixelized map of Japan in its center. The border edges consist of a number of bird and plant drawings. I’ve always liked the JARL awards’ stamps with Japanese characters. They give the award a certain gravity lacking in some others.
The fee for WAJA in 2025 is 16 IRCs or 2,000 Yen for foreign or non-member Hams. You can use PayPal as part of this process, making things quite easy. The confirmation list of contacts can be validated simply by an oath of the applicant that the required confirmations have been obtained. No need to risk cards in the mail. More details are available on the JARL awards rules page.
Thanks for the interesting info. Are you aware of a tool that could look at my log (ADIF) and determine what prefectures are worked/needed?
Jeff,
Unfortunately, but I’m not aware of such a tool. I kept track of this by simply creating a spreadsheet with all prefectures listed and I filled in the contact info whenever I received confirmations.
Hello, Robert!
Could you give me an advice or a direct link to the list of corresponding prefectures and call signs?
In other words: how can I get the status of my WAJA?
With best wishes!
Sergey,
You can’t rely on callsign alone to determine the station’s prefecture. I determined the prefecture using one of two methods. For paper QSL cards I just look for the prefecture name on the card. For LoTW confirmations, some, though not all, confirmations include the prefecture name. It depends on how the Japanese Ham set up their LoTW account.
I do NOT use the station’s address on QRZ.com to determine its prefecture. The station may be operating portable from somewhere else.
The JARL has the following map showing and listing all prefectures.
https://www.jarl.org/English/4_Library/A-4-2_Awards/waja_map.pdf
I just created a spreadsheet listing those prefectures and then I filled in contact details as I got confirmations or cards.
Good luck!