Cities of Japan

Cities of Japan
Cities of Japan
Administrative divisions of Japan
Prefectural level
Prefectures
(都道府県 todōfuken)
Subprefectural level
Subprefectures
(支庁 shichō)


Districts
(郡 gun)

Municipal level
Designated cities
(政令指定都市 seirei-shitei-toshi)


Core cities
(中核市 chūkaku-shi)


Special cities
(特例市 tokurei-shi)


Cities
(市 shi)


Special wards (Tokyo)
(特別区 tokubetsu-ku)


Towns
(町 chō, machi)


Villages
(村 son, mura)

Sub-municipal level
Wards
(区 ku)

A city ( shi?) is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as towns ( machi?) and villages ( mura?), with the difference that they are not a component of districts ( gun?). Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947.

Contents

City status

Article 8 of the Local Autonomy Law sets the following conditions for a municipality to be designated as a city:

  • Population must generally be 50,000 or greater (原則として人口5万人以上)
  • At least 60% of households must be established in a central urban area (中心市街地の戸数が全戸数の6割以上)
  • At least 60% of households must be employed in commerce, industry or other urban occupations (商工業等の都市的業態に従事する世帯人口が全人口の6割以上)
  • Any other conditions set by prefectural ordinance must be satisfied (他に当該都道府県の条例で定める要件を満たしていること)

The designation is approved by the prefectural governor and the Minister for Internal Affairs.

A city can theoretically be demoted to a town or village when it fails to meet any of these conditions, but such a demotion has not happened to date. The least populous city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has a population of six thousand, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido, has nearly forty thousand.

Under the Act on Special Provisions concerning Merger of Municipalities (市町村の合併の特例等に関する法律?, Act No. 59 of 2004), the standard of 50,000 inhabitants for the city status has been eased to 30,000 if such population is gained as a result of a merger of towns and/or villages, in order to facilitate such mergers to reduce administrative costs. Many municipalities gained city status under this eased standard. On the other hand, the municipalities recently gained the city status purely as a result of increase of population without expansion of area are limited to those listed in List of former towns or villages gained city status alone.

Classifications for large cities

The Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of special city, core city, or designated city. These statuses expand the scope of administrative authority delegated from the prefectural government to the city government.

Status of Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan’s capital, existed as a city until 1943, but is now legally classified as a special type of prefecture called a metropolis ( to?). The 23 special wards of Tokyo, which constitute the core of the Tokyo metropolitan area, each have an administrative status analogous to that of cities. Tokyo also has several other incorporated cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction.

Further information

See List of cities in Japan and List of Japanese cities by population for complete lists.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of cities in Japan — This is a list of cities in Japan, by prefecture and within prefecture by founding date (but can be sorted within prefecture by name, population, area, or population density). For more information about cities in Japan see Municipality of Japan.… …   Wikipedia

  • List of twin towns and sister cities in Japan — These cities in Japan have sister city relationships with foreign communities.See also the list of twin towns and sister cities. * Akashi:flagicon|USA Vallejo, United States* Akita:flagicon|RUS Vladivostok, Russia* Anjō:flagicon|USA Huntington… …   Wikipedia

  • JAPAN — JAPAN, Asian state. In early medieval times Jews from Europe and the Middle East may have been involved in trade with Japan through their connection with the silk route. Later, during Japan s so called Christian Century (1542–1639), some Jews… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Special cities of Japan — nihongo|Special Cities|特例市|Tokureishi of Japan are cities with populations of at least 200,000, and are delegated a subset of the functions delegated to core cities.This category was established by the Local Autonomy Law, article 252 clause 26.… …   Wikipedia

  • Japan during World War I — Japan participated in nihongo|World War I|第一次世界大戦|Daiichiji Sekai Taisen from 1914 to 1917, as one of the major Entente Powers, played an important role in securing the sea lanes in South Pacific and Indian Oceans against the Kaiserliche Marine.… …   Wikipedia

  • Japan — This article is about the country. For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation) …   Wikipedia

  • Cities of present-day nations and states — This is a list of articles on the cities of contemporary countries, states and dependencies. Countries are listed in bold under their respective pages, whereas territories and dependencies are not. Disputed and unrecognized countries are… …   Wikipedia

  • Japan International Cooperation Agency — The Japan International Cooperation Agency (独立行政法人国際協力機構 dokuritsu gyōseihōjin kokusai kyōryoku kikō ) is an independent governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is commonly known… …   Wikipedia

  • Japan — • Called in the language of the country Nihon or Nippon (Land of the Rising Sun), and Dai Nihon or Dai Nippon (Great Japan), situated north west of the Pacific Ocean and east of the Asiatic continent Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006.… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Cities (Anberlin album) — Cities Studio album by Anberlin Released February 20, 2007 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”