This article was a way to showcase and analyse the Fukuoka kenjin magazine, which had been one of the first archival finds I made when I started my research for the Narrowing Sea project. The magazine and its articles were vital sources for understanding how Fukuokans thought of themselves, their prefecture, and their community; whether in Fukuoka, Tokyo, or across Japan’s formal and informal empire in the Asia Pacific.

In the article I argue that prefectural associations and their publications, like the Fukuoka kenjin, played important roles in Japanese imperialism. I show how expansive ideas of the hometown, created through prefectural association networks and publications, gave rise to ideas of borderless empire and frictionless mobility. I also contextualize these Japanese associations in a global history of associationalism and empire, before thinking about transwar continuities and ruptures.