In February 2006, the Japan Castle Foundation released a list of the Top 100 castles in Japan. Selection was based on (1) important cultural or historical artifacts (2) the setting for important historical events and (3) representative castles from each historical period and region. Furthermore, there is at least one castle from each prefecture, but no more than 5.

The castles included on this site are linked below. There is also a new browsing criteria in the Castle Browser under "Historical Importance" for Top 100 Listed and you can view a Google Map of the same castles.

Region/Prefecture	Castles
Hokkaido • Tohoku
Hokkaido	Nemuro Peninsula Chashi  •  Goryokaku  •  Matsumae Castle
Aomori	Hirosaki Castle  •  Ne Castle
Iwate	Morioka Castle
Miyagi	Sendai Castle  •  Taga Castle
Akita	Kubota Castle
Yamagata	Yamagata Castle
Fukushima	Nihonmatsu Castle  •  Aizu Wakamatsu Castle  •  Shirakawa Castle
Kanto • Koshin'etsu
Ibaraki	Mito Castle
Tochigi	Ashikaga-shi Yakata (Banna-ji)
Gunma	Minowa Castle  •  Kanayama Castle
Saitama	Hachigata Castle  •  Kawagoe Castle
Chiba	Sakura Castle
Tokyo	Edo Castle  •  Hachioiji Castle
Kanagawa	Odawara Castle
Niigata	Shibata Castle  •  Kasugayama Castle
Yamanashi	Kofu Castle  •  Takeda-shi Yakata (Takeda Jinja)
Nagano	Matsushiro Castle  •   Ueda Castle  •  Komoro Castle  •  Matsumoto Castle  •  Takato Castle
Hokuriku • Tokai
Toyama	Takaoka Castle
Ishikawa	Nanao Castle  •  Kanazawa Castle
Fukui	Maruoka Castle  •  Ichijodani Castle
Gifu	Iwamura Castle  •  Gifu Castle
Shizuoka	Yamanaka Castle  •  Sunpu Castle  •  Kakegawa Castle
Aichi	Inuyama Castle  •   Nagoya Castle  •   Okazaki Castle  •   Nagashino Castle
Mie	Iga Ueno Castle  •  Matsusaka Castle
Kinki
Shiga	Odani Castle  •  Hikone Castle  •  Azuchi Castle  •  Kannonji Castle
Kyoto	Nijo Castle
Osaka	Osaka Castle  •  Chihaya Castle
Hyogo	Takeda Castle  •   Sasayama Castle  •   Akashi Castle  •   Himeji Castle  •   Ako Castle
Nara	Takatori Castle
Wakayama	Wakayama Castle
Chugoku • Shikoku
Tottori	Tottori Castle
Shimane	Matsue Castle  •  Gassan Toda Castle  •  Tsuwano Castle
Okayama	Tsuyama Castle  •  Bitchu Matsuyama Castle  •  Kinojo  •  Okayama Castle
Hiroshima	Fukuyama Castle  •  Koriyama Castle  •  Hiroshima Castle
Yamaguchi	Iwakuni Castle  •  Hagi Castle
Tokushima	Tokushima Castle
Kagawa	Takamatsu Castle  •  Marugame Castle
Ehime	Imabari Castle  •  Matsuyama Castle  •  Yuzuki Castle  •  Ozu Castle  •  Uwajima Castle
Kochi	Kochi Castle
Kyushu • Okinawa
Fukuoka	Fukuoka Castle  •  Ono Castle
Saga	Nagoya Castle  •  Yoshinogari Castle  •  Saga Castle
Nagasaki	Hirado Castle  •  Shimabara Castle
Kumamoto	Kumamoto Castle  •  Hitoshi Castle
Oita	Oita Castle  •  Oka Castle
Miyazaki	Obi Castle
Kagoshima	Kagoshima Castle
Okinawa	Nakijin Castle  •   Naka Castle  •  Shuri Castle

A name in parentheses above is the name of the temple that now stands on the castle site. Prefectures and castles within each prefecture are roughly ordered from North to South and East to West.