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A is a local
administrative Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of . Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the
Local Autonomy Law The , passed by the House of Representatives and the House of Peers on March 28, 1947 and promulgated as Law No. 67 of 1947 on April 17,Ministry of Justice, Japanese Law Translation Database SystemLocal Autonomy Act/ref> is an Act of devolution t ...
of 1947.


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 and Communications The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The minister is also a statutory member of the National Security Council, and is nominated by the Prime Ministe ...
. 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 three thousand, while a town in the same prefecture,
Otofuke, Hokkaido is a town located in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the town has an estimated population of 45,208 and a density of 97 persons per km2. The total area is 466.09 km2. Climate Notable persons from Otofuke ...
, has over forty thousand. Under the , 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 in Japan.


Classifications for large cities

The Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of
core city In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central 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 Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, Japan's capital, existed as a city until 1943, but is now legally classified as a special type of prefecture called a . The 23
special wards of Tokyo are a special form of municipalities in Japan under the 1947 Local Autonomy Law. They are city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy largely comparable to other forms of municipalities. Although the auton ...
, 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.


History

Cities were introduced under the "city code" (''shisei'', 市制) of 1888 during the "Great Meiji mergers" (''Meiji no daigappei'', 明治の大合併) of 1889. The ''-shi'' replaced the previous urban districts/"wards/cities" ''(-ku)'' that had existed as primary subdivisions of prefectures besides rural districts ''(-gun)'' since 1878. Initially, there were 39 cities in 1889: only one in most prefectures, two in a few (Yamagata, Toyama, Osaka, Hyōgo, Fukuoka), and none in some – Miyazaki became the last prefecture to contain its first city in 1924. In
Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...
-ken and Hokkai-dō which were not yet fully equal prefectures in the Empire, major urban settlements remained organized as urban districts until the 1920s: Naha-ku and Shuri-ku, the two urban districts of Okinawa were only turned into
Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area ...
-shi and Shuri-shi in May 1921, and six -ku of Hokkaidō were converted into district-independent cities in August 1922. By 1945, the number of cities countrywide had increased to 205. After
WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, their number almost doubled during the "great Shōwa mergers" of the 1950s and continued to grow so that it surpassed the number of towns in the early 21st century (see the
List of mergers and dissolutions of municipalities in Japan This page links to the list of mergers and dissolutions of municipalities in Japan for each prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be ...
). As of October 1 2018, there are 792 cities of Japan.Zenkoku shichōkai (全国市長会; nationwide association of city and special ward mayors)
/ref>


See also

*
Administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
*
Urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...
* List of cities in Japan


References


External links


Directory of current Japanese city leaders and outline of system (2012)

"Japan's Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy: The Race for Local Power in the 2000s,"
by A.J. Jacobs at ''Urban Studies Research,'' Vol. 2011 (2011); doi:10.1155/2011/692764
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