| Administrative divisions of Japan |
|---|
| Prefectural |
| Prefectures |
| Sub-prefectural |
| Municipal |
| Sub-municipal |
Municipalities are a level of administration inJapan. The country has three levels of governments:national,prefectural, andmunicipal.
The nation is divided into 47 prefectures (within these, one metropolis, one regional prefecture, and twourban prefectures). Each prefecture consists of numerous municipalities, with 1,718 in total as of October 2018.[1]
There are four types of municipalities in Japan:cities (市,shi),towns (町,chō),villages (村,son) andspecial wards of Tokyo (区,ku). InJapanese, this system is known asshikuchōson (市区町村), where eachkanji in the word represents one of the four types of municipalities. InTokyo, because the wards are at the center, the system is officially referred to askushichōson (区市町村), with the wards first, and cities second.[2][3][4]
Somedesignated cities also have further administrative subdivisions, also known as wards, but, unlike the special wards of Tokyo, these wards are not municipalities.
| Municipality Type | Japanese | Reading | Translation | Population Range | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ku | 区 | ku | Ward | Varies | Special wards of Tokyo or administrative divisions withindesignated cities |
| Shi | 市 | shi | City | 50,000+ | Most common municipality type, requires minimum population |
| Chō | 町 | chō/machi | Town | 5,000-50,000 | Intermediate level between village and city, more urban than rural |
| Son | 村 | son/mura | Village | Under 5,000 | Smallest municipal unit, predominantly rural |
The status of a municipality, if it is a village, town or city, is decided by the prefectural government. Generally, a village or town can be promoted to a city when its population increases above fifty thousand, and a city can (but need not) be demoted to a town or village when its population decreases below fifty thousand. The least-populated city,Utashinai, Hokkaidō, has a population of merely four thousand, while a town in the same prefecture,Otofuke, Hokkaidō, has nearly forty thousand residents, and the country's largest villageYomitan, Okinawa has a population of 40,517.
The capital city,Tokyo, no longer has municipal status, but metropolitan (都,to), equivalent toprefectural level status. The Tokyo Metropolis now encompasses the23 special wards, as well as 26 cities, 6 towns and 8 villages on theTama Area andInsular Area. Each of the 23 special wards ofTokyo, which even though they are wards (区,ku), and not cities (市,shi), have near municipal level status. Sometimes the 23 special wards area (東京都区部,Tōkyō-to kubu) as a whole is regarded as one city (都内,Tonai). For information on the former city of Tokyo, seeTokyo City; for information about present-day Tokyo Metropolis, seeTokyo.
SeeList of cities in Japan for a complete list of cities.See also:Core cities of Japan
The following are examples of the 20designated cities:
The same kanji which designates a town (町) is also sometimes used for addresses of sections of an urban area. In rare cases, a municipal village might even contain a section with the same type of designation. Although the kanji is the same, neither of these individual sections are municipalities unto themselves. Sometimes, the section name is a remnant fromgappei, a system where several adjacent communities merge to form a larger municipality, where the old town names are kept for a section of the new city, even though the resulting new city may have a completely different name.