Cities of Japan

Cities in Japan are one of the basic local entities of the nation.

Japan's smallest sub-national jurisdictions are sometimes grouped together. The term shichoson combines suffixes which recognize the municipalities, including
 * "city" (市)
 * "town" (町)
 * "village" (村)

The small cities generally have populations of over 30,000.

There are three defined classes or categories of big cities.
 * Designated cites, population over 500,000
 * Core cities, population over 300,000
 * Special cities, population over 200,000

Each of the largest cities does many of the things normally done by prefectures.

History
Japan's system of local governments date from 1947. Cities in Japan are local governments which are defined by the Local Autonomy Law.

Related pages

 * Administrative division
 * Urban area
 * Municipalities in Japan

Other websites

 * "Large City System of Japan"; graphic shows cities in context [PDF 7 of 40 ]