Cities of Japan
Administrative divisions of Japan |
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Prefectural |
Prefectures |
Sub-prefectural |
Municipal |
Sub-municipal |
A city (
City status
[edit]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.
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, has over forty thousand.
Under the Act on Special Provisions concerning Merger of Municipalities (
Classifications for large cities
[edit]The Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of 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
[edit]Tokyo, Japan's capital, existed as a city until 1943, but is now legally classified as a special type of prefecture called a metropolis (
History
[edit]Cities were introduced under the "city code" (shisei,
By 1945, the number of cities countrywide had increased to 205. After WWII, 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).[5] As of October 1 2018, there are 792 cities of Japan.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, e-gov database of legal texts: Chihōjichihō Archived 2005-02-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ministry of Justice, Japanese Law Translation Database System: Local Autonomy Act
- ^ "Tokyo - City Guide". japan-guide. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
- ^ National Diet Library Nihon hōrei sakuin (
日本法令 索引 , "Index of Japanese laws and ordinances"): Entry市制 , List of changes to the law and deliberative histories in the Imperial Diet of the laws that changed it Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine (no legislative history of the shisei itself as the law was decreed by the government in 1888 before the Imperial constitution took effect in 1890), List of other laws changed by it Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine & entry for the revised市制 of 1911, Legislative history of the bill in the Imperial Diet Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine, Laws changing/abolishing it Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine, Laws changed by it Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine - ^ MIC: Timeline of number of municipalities since the Great Meiji mergers
- ^ Zenkoku shichōkai (
全国 市長 会 ; nationwide association of city and special ward mayors)
External links
[edit]- Directory of current Japanese city leaders and outline of system (2012)
- Jacobs, A. J. (2011). "Japan's Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy: The Race for Local Power in the 2000s". Urban Studies Research. 2011: 1–14. doi:10.1155/2011/692764.
- "Large City System of Japan"; graphic shows Japanese city types at p. 1 [PDF 7 of 40] Archived 2019-09-17 at the Wayback Machine