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Japan has three levels of government: , Towns , Villages and Special Wards (the ''ku'' of Tokyo ). In Japanese , this system is known as ''shichosonku'' (市町村区).

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, Hokkaido , has population of mere six thousand, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido , has nearly forty thousand.

A ''shi'' may have further administrative subdivisions known as wards (区, ''ku''). These, however, are not municipalities. The only wards that are municipalities are the special wards of Tokyo.

The following are major cities:
  • Fukuoka , the most populous city in the Kyushu region

  • Hiroshima , the busy manufacturing city in the Chugoku region of Honshu

  • Kobe , a major port on the Inland Sea , located in the center of Honshu near Osaka

  • Kitakyushu , a city of just over one million inhabitants in Kyushu

  • Kyoto , former capital, historic center and thriving modern city

  • Nagasaki , a port on the island of Kyushu

  • Nagoya , center of a major automobile-manufacturing region on the eastern seaboard of Honshu

  • Osaka , a vast manufacturing city on the Inland Sea coast of Honshu

  • Sapporo , the largest city in Hokkaido

  • Sendai , the principal center of northeast Honshu (also known as the Tohoku Region )

  • Yokohama , a port city just south of Tokyo


Note that Tokyo is not a city. Tokyo Prefecture encompasses 23 special wards, each a city unto itself, as well as many cities, towns and even villages on the Japanese mainland and outlying islands. For information on the former city of that name, see Tokyo City ; for information about present-day Tokyo Prefecture, see Tokyo .

See List Of Cities In Japan for the complete list.

Each of the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo is legally equivalent to a city, though sometimes 23 special wards as a whole is regarded as one city.

Except for these wards of Tokyo, all large cities are of Cities Designated By Government Ordinance .

''See also'': Core City , Municipality Of Japan


NON-MUNICIPALITY


The words ''Cho'' and ''machi'' are also used for addresses in urban areas. These instances are not municipalities. In rare cases, a ''mura'' (municipal village) might even contain a ''machi'' (town by name). As an example of a cho that is not a municipality, Awaji-cho is a small neighborhood within a special ward in Tokyo. Even though it has the word ''cho'', meaning ''town'', at the end, Awaji-cho is not a town. Many such cho were previously towns that coalesced to form larger cities (and many were not).

Similarly, the ''ku'' of Osaka , Kyoto , and other large cities are non-municipal administration wards. The ''ku'' of Himeji are non-municipal asset wards.

Subprefectures (''shicho'') are branch offices of the prefectures and not municipalities by themselves.

Districts (''gun'') are not current municipalities but names of groups of towns and villages.

Provinces (''kuni'') are not current municipalities but (almost obsolete) names of geographical regions similar to prefectures.


SEE ALSO