Kinai (畿内, Capital Region) is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. Kinai is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō.^[1] The five provinces were called go-kinai after 1760.^[2]

The name is still used to describe part of the Kansai region, but the area of the Kinai corresponds only generally to the land of the old provinces.^[1]

The region was established as one of the Gokishichidō ("Five provinces and seven roads") during the Asuka period (538-710). It consisted of Yamashiro, Yamato, Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi provinces.^[2]

• Comparison of past and present administrative divisions of Japan
• Kinki (近畿)

• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128