Cities of Japan

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Cities of Japan

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A is a local administrative unit in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. 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

Local Autonomy Law

The Local Autonomy Law of Japan was passed as Law No. 67 on April 17, 1947, an Act of Devolution that established most of Japan's contemporary local government structures, including prefectures of Japan, municipalities of Japan and other entities....
of 1947.

rally, 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.

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A is a local administrative unit in Japan

Japan

Local Autonomy Law

City status

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

Utashinai, Hokkaido

is a cities of Japan located in Sorachi Subprefecture Subprefectures in Hokkaido, Hokkaido, Japan. It is Japan's smallest city by population. It was formerly a prosperous coal mining city, but has declined greatly since the closing of the coal mines....
, has a population of merely six thousand, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido

Otofuke, Hokkaido

is a towns of Japan located in Kato District, Hokkaido, Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan.As of 2008, the town has an estimated population of 44,402 and a population density of 89.97 persons per square kilometer....
, has nearly forty thousand. Larger cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants can achieve one of three special statuses: special city

Special cities of Japan

of Japan are Cities of Japan with populations of at least 200,000, and are delegated a subset of the functions delegated to Core city.This category was established by the Local Autonomy Law, article 252 clause 26....
, core city

Core city

A is a class of cities of Japan created by the first clause of Article 252, Section 22 of the Local Autonomy Law of Japan. Core cities are delegated many functions normally carried out by prefectural governments, but not as many as City designated by government ordinance....
, or “designated” city

City designated by government ordinance (Japan)

A , also known as a or , is a Cities of Japan that has a population greater than 500,000 and has been designated as such by an order of the cabinet of Japan under Article 252, Section 19 of the Local Autonomy Law....
.

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

Merger and dissolution of municipalities of Japan

are actions taken, either within one municipality or between multiple municipalities, after making a consensus agreement to do so....
, 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

List of former towns or villages gained city status alone

The following municipalities in Japan gained city status alone.Which means that the current cities became cities without merging with another municipality....
.

Status of Tokyo

Most people outside Japan think of Tokyo

Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
, Japan’s capital, as a city, but under Japanese law it is a special subregional administrative unit called a that has prefectural authority

Prefectures of Japan

The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 sub-national jurisdictions: one "metropolis" , Tokyo; one "Circuit #Japan" , Hokkaido; two urban prefectures , Osaka Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture; and 43 other prefectures ....
(and is therefore counted as one of the country’s 47 prefectures). Its official name in English is Tokyo Metropolis (and that of its government, Tokyo Metropolitan Government), and it has incorporated cities within its jurisdiction.

Lists

See List of cities in Japan

List of cities in Japan

This is a list of Cities of Japan in Japan, by Prefectures of Japan and within prefecture by founding date .For more information about cities in Japan see Municipality of Japan....
and List of Japanese cities by population

List of Japanese cities by population

Japan has many major Cities of Japan. Many of these cities are crowded into a relatively small area of land along the Pacific Ocean coast of Honshu, between Tokyo and Kobe....
for complete lists.