| Districts Of Japan |
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The district (郡; ''gun'') was most recently used as an administrative unit in Japan between 1878 and 1921 and is roughly equivalent to the County of the United States . It was ranked at the level below Prefecture and above City , Town or Village . The district was initially called ''kōri'' and has ancient roots in Japan. Although the Nihon Shoki claims they were established during the Taika Reforms , ''kōri'' was originally written 評. It wasn't until the Taihō Penal and Civil Code that ''kōri'' came to be written 郡. Under the Taihō Penal and Civil Code, the administrative unit of province (国; ''kuni'') was above district, and the village (里; ''sato'' or 郷; ''sato'') was below. The concept of 郡 has remained in some form throughout Japanese history and is still used in the Japanese Addressing System to identify the location of towns or villages. Cities belong directly to prefectures and are independent from districts, unlike cities in the US which usually belong to a county, excluding Virginia which cities are independent from counties administratively. CONFUSING CASES IN HOKKAIDO Because district names had been unique in the Province and nowadays Prefecture boundaries are roughly aligned to Province boundaries, most district names are unique in the Prefecture . However, the Hokkaido Prefecture , consisting of eleven Province s, involves a few confusing cases. There are three Kamikawa Districts and two Nakagawa Districts in the Hokkaido Prefecture .
Abuta District, Rumoi District, Sorachi District, and Yufutsu District are deceptively similar, but each of them is a single district allotted to two Subprefectures .
See also: Geography Of Japan |
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