Municipalities in Japan

Municipalities in Japan (市区町村, shikuchōson)^[1] are the local governments and sub-divisions of the island nation.^[2]

There are three main types of municipalities in Japan:

• cities,
• towns,
• villages

There is a fourth type of municipality — the 23 special wards of Tokyo.

1. ↑ Shikuchōson is a term which was made up in the Meiji period. In this invented word, each kanji represents one of the four types of municipalities.
2. ↑ Jacobs, A.J. "Japan's Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy: The Race for Local Power in the 2000s," Urban Studies Research, Vol. 2011 (2011); doi:10.1155/2011/692764; retrieved 2012-3-23.