Municipality of Japan
This article is about the Japanese municipalty system.
Basic Municipality
Cities (shi, and ku of Tokyo), towns (cho and machi), villages (son and mura) are basic municipalties. The Ku of Tokyo are also translated as the special ward. Difference among all these suffix words are only matter of expressions in legal text. Colloquially most municiaplities are called without suffixes except for a few conventional cases. See Shinshu-shinmachi, Nagano and Shinmachi, Nagano.
Generally, a village or town can be promoted to a city when its population increases above fifty thousands, and a city can (but need not) be demoted to a town or village when its population decreases below fifty thousands. The most deserted city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has popularity of mere six thousands, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido, has nearly fourty thousands.
Criteria between a village and a town is defined by the prefecture it belongs.
Prefecturre
Prefectures (to, do, fu, and ken) are municipalities above cities, towns, and villages, and below the nation. Difference among all these suffix words are only matter of expressions in legal text. Colloquially most municiaplities are called without suffixes except for Hokkaido.
Non-municipality
Cho and machi are also used for addresses in urban areas. These instances are not municipalities. For a rare case, a mura (municipal village) contains a machi (town by name).
Ku of Osaka, Kyoto, and other large cities are non-municipal administration wards. Ku of Himeji is non-municipal asset wards.
Subprefectures (shicho) are a branch office of the prefectures and not municipalities by theirselves.
Districts (gun) are not current municipalities but names of groups of towns and villages.
Provinces (kuni) are not current municipalities but (almost obsoleted) names of geographical regions similar to prefectures.
See Also
Referenced By
List of Japan-related topics L-Z | Town (Japan) | Towns of Japan | Village (Japan) | Villages of Japan
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