While generally not to particularly distant locations, I think it’s fair to say at this point that I have traveled extensively within the Kansai region and to a lesser extent in the surrounding prefectures. In doing so I, as one is bound to do on an island, encounter rivers quite frequently. At a large number of rivers there are signs with the name of the river and the prefecture (like the photo below) and sometimes some other info.
10年GW：小豆島・直島
On a large number of signs as well, you’ll see 「一級河川」 or 「二級河川」. The reasoning behind this certification has baffled me for such a long time that I finally decided to look it up. It seemed both beautiful, majestic rivers and trash-laden dried-up gullies could earn the 1級 title, so I really wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Classification Overview
Let’s refer to the delightfully detailed federal law governing rivers (河川法) for Japan.
「一級河川とは」国土保全上又は国民経済上特に重要な水系で政令で指定したものに係る河川で国土交通大臣が指定したものをいう。
(Tier 1 Rivers) are bodies of water (lit. [elements of] the drainage system) which have been designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as being particularly vital to environmental conservation and/or citizens’ economic well-being. (Article 4 Section 1)
「二級河川とは」河川法第5条第1項で前条第1項の政令で指定された水系以外の水系で公共の利害に重要な関係があるものに係る河川で都道府県知事が指定したもの。
(Tier 2 rivers) are bodies of water besides the ones listed in article 4 section 1, which have been designated by the prefectural governor as being valued in the public interest. (Article 5 Section 1)
So essentially, the level of government which issued the order, and the relative importance of the body of water from an environmental perspective is what decides it.
There is one other main river classification – 「準用河川」, which I’m going to translate as “Legally Applicable River.” These are legally handled in the same way as Tier 2 rivers, except their designation is carried out at the municipal level (city/town/village leader).
Outside of these three, you have the 「普通河川」 (Standard River) label attached, and the paragraph regarding the legal authority of these rivers was just a nightmare to read, so put simply – it’s basically left up to the municipal authorities.
According to 2001 statistics (nothing appears to have changed) there are 109 designated tier 1 rivers, and via 2009 statistics (PDF) there are 2,713 tier 2 rivers. Naturally with tier 1 being far less common, there probably hasn’t been a need to gather more stats in the last ten years!
Responsible Authorities
At present, top-level authority rests with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s River Bureau (国土交通省河川局). From the late 1800s until the 1960s a number of different, smaller government orders slowly paved the way to the current standard-setting new Rivers Law (新河川法) which was passed in 1964. One major change from the Meiji era law (旧河川法と呼ばれるようになったらしい) was that of the implementation of the above tiered classification system, which clearly identifies that Tier 1 rivers are the responsibility of the federal government, and Tier 2 rivers are the responsibility of the prefectural government. I like that kind of clear organization of authority. There are apparently cases when responsibility is handed down to a lower level of government, but we don’t need to worry much about that here.
For people who really like to get technical, while the naming of the classification of rivers ends up as ～級河川, there is a special quantification system which is apparently utilized, where 「水系」 (drainage system) is actually utilized as a unit of measure. Thus both 「一級河川」 and 「一級水系」 are technically correct. I guess since really any river-like body of water can be referred to as 河川, the attachment of a physical unit of measure to it (even just in name) reinforces that it is an element of a larger system under the government’s all-seeing-eye of control!
Resources
The government has a great page summarizing all the tier 1 rivers and has links to the sites governing future plans for each body of water. Here’s a more eye-friendly map.
Beyond that, I can’t imagine there is anyone out there who wants to know more about rivers than I’ve written here. However I dig this style of post and will likely be doing more in the future!
鮮やかな紅葉と山頂にある小屋