A regional bank in a Japanese term (Japanese: 地方銀行 = "Chihō ginkō" or 地銀 = "Chigin") for one of the 50 or so banks with its head office in the capital city of one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, serving mainly its local prefectural customers.
![The Bank of Yokohama Logo](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/The_Bank_of_Yokohama_Logo.svg/150px-The_Bank_of_Yokohama_Logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/82bank-logo.svg/150px-82bank-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/The_kagoshima_bank.svg/150px-The_kagoshima_bank.svg.png)
Examples of the regional banks are: Bank of Yokohama which is headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Hachijuni Bank with its head office in Nagano, Nagano, and Kagoshima Bank , which recently merged with Higo Bank (肥後銀行) in Kumamoto, Kumamoto to become Kyushu Financial Group.
The regional bank is in contrast to the city bank (都市銀行 ="Toshi ginkō" or 都銀 = "Togin") with its head office in Tokyo or Osaka, Japan's two largest cities. Each of these banks have a wide network of branches in the larger cities of Japan. There are five city banks: MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Mizuho Bank, and two Resona Banks.[1]