Long distance relationships in Japan

The term 'long distance relationship' in Japanese is 'enkyori renai' 遠距離恋愛. 'Enkyori' means long distance and 'renai' means 'love" or 'romance". Today, and December 21st annually, is "long distance relationship day". A day for couples who, for one reason or another, are separated by distance. 

When you hear the term" long-distance relationship" what image does the conjure up? For me, and I think it's fair to say for many Irish people, a long distance relationship typically conjures up the image  of a couple who are living in two different countries. However, Ireland is a geographically small country which influences that image. Meanwhile, Japan is a much larger country. From the various articles and social media posts I read on the subject this morning, it would seem that, in Japan. "long distance relationship" typically refers to a couple separated within Japan, in two different prefectures. 

By that definitiom my husband and I were in a long distance relationship in our first years together - I lived in Ibaraki and he lived in Saitama! But to me our long distance relationship period was the years that I was in Ireland and he was  in Japan. Those years were much more challenging. Only being prefectures apart, on the same island, was easy in comparison! But I can imagine that being on separate islands, for example Hokkaido and Okinawa, is a lot more challenging. It is all relative to the individuals involved, but I just found it interesting what constitutes a long-distance relationship in Japan.