Kuei Prefecture (The Orange Outback)

Kuei Prefecture (区衛県 Kuei-ken) is the northernmost prefecture of Japan located on the northern half of Kitajima island and the Chishima Island. The capital of Kuei is Keton.

History
The area that is now Kuei was historically part of the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Empire, until the island was seized by the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1888 during the First Russo-Japanese War. The entire island would then be administered as the Karafuto Northern Territory starting in 1892 until 1899, when the name was changed to the Karafuto Colony.

In 1925, the Karafuto Colony was reorganized and renamed into the Karafuto Prefecture, with the Karafuto Colonial Authority becoming the Karafuto Prefectural Government. During this time, the demographics of the northern and southern portions of the island became increasingly different, with the south being largely composed of newer immigrants from the Honshu and Hokkaido islands who spoke mostly a standardized form of the Japanese language and the north remainingly largely of the older, more established group of Japanese immigrants with significant Manchu, Ainu, and Russian ancestry, who spoke a more creolized dialect of Japanese, known as Kitajima-ben.

The difference in languages between both groups came to a head in 1966, when violence broke out between new and old immigrants in city of Shikuka between March and June of that year, resulting in 13 arrests and nearly 20 deaths. To resolve the issue, the entire prefecture was granted a referendum to see if the two halves wish to split into two separate prefectures. The referendum was a success for both sides as both groups voted 80/20 in favour of the split, which happened on 23 December 1964, when northern half of Karafuto became the Kuei Prefecture, while the southern half remained as Karafuto.

Administrative Divisions
Kuei is divided into 4 standard districts (正規区 Seikiku) and a capital district (大区 Daiku), each comprising of 3-4 municipalities and at least one city. The districts are listed below: