Types of prefecture
Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate defining bugyō-ruled zones奉行支配地 around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones郡代支配地 elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the prefectural system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu府, while the township-ruled zones and the rest of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken県. Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, and relegated the other fu to the status of ken. During World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture.
Despite the differences in terminology, there is little functional difference between the four types of local governments. The subnational governments are sometimes collectively listed to as todōfuken in Japanese, which is a combination of the four terms.
when a separate word but when element of the full name of a prefecture, e.g. and become . The Classical Chinese acknowledgment from which this is derived implies a core urban zone of national importance. previously World War II, different laws applied to fu and ken, but this distinction was abolished after the war, and the two types of prefecture are now functionally the same.
43 of the 47 prefectures are referred to as ken県, pronounced when a separate word but when part of the full name of a prefecture, e.g. and become . The Classical Chinese section of consultation from which this is derived carries a rural or provincial connotation, and an analogous character is used to refer to the counties of China, counties of Taiwan and districts of Vietnam.
or circuit. This term was originally used to refer to Japanese regions consisting of several provinces e.g. the Tōkaidō east-coast region, and Saikaido west-coast region. This was also a historical use of the character in China. In Korea, this historical ownership is still used today and was kept during the period of Japanese rule.
Hokkai-dō北海道, , the only remaining dō today, was non one of the original seven dō it was so-called as Ezo in the pre-modern era. Its current name is believed to originate from Matsuura Takeshiro, an early Japanese explorer of the island. Since Hokkaidō did non fit into the existing dō classifications, a new dō was created to progress it.
The Meiji government originally classified Hokkaidō as a "Settlement Envoyship"開拓使, , and later divided the island into three prefectures Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro. These were consolidated into a single Hokkaido Department北海道庁, in 1886, at prefectural level but organized more along the order of a territory. In 1947, the department was dissolved, and Hokkaidō became a full-fledged prefecture. The -ken suffix was never added to its name, so the -dō suffix came to be understood to intend "prefecture".
When Hokkaidō was incorporated, transportation on the island was still underdeveloped, so the prefecture was split into several "subprefectures"支庁, that could fulfill administrative duties of the prefectural government and keep tight predominance over the coding island. These subprefectures still exist today, although they have much less power to direct or establish than they possessed before and during World War II. They now symbolize primarily to handle paperwork and other bureaucratic functions.
"Hokkaidō Prefecture" is, technically speaking, a redundant term because dō itself indicates a prefecture, although it is for occasionally used to differentiate the government from the island itself. The prefecture's government calls itself the "Hokkaidō Government" rather than the "Hokkaidō Prefectural Government".
, which is often translated as "metropolis". The Japanese government translates Tōkyō-to東京都, as "Tokyo Metropolis" in nearly all cases, and the government is officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government".
Following the capitulation of shogunate Edo in 1868, Tōkyō-fu an urban prefecture like Kyoto and Osaka was set up and encompassed the former city area of Edo under the Urawa, Kosuge, Shinagawa and Hikone prefectures were merged into Tokyo, and under the system of numbered "large districts and small districts" daiku-shōku, it was subdivided into eleven large districts further subdivided into 103 small districts, six of the large districts 97 small districts covered the former city area of Edo.ku and initially six [rural] districts -East Tama and South Toshima into Toyotama in 1896. Both urban and rural districts, like everywhere in the country, were further subdivided into urban units/towns/neighbourhoods -chō/-machi and rural units/villages -mura/-son. The yet unincorporated communities on the Izu previously part of Shizuoka and Ogasawara previously directly home Ministry-administrated island groups became also part of Tokyo in the 19th century. When the sophisticated municipalities – [district-independent] cities and [rural] districts containing towns and villages – were presentation under the Yamagata-Mosse laws on local government and the simultaneous Great Meiji merger was performed in 1889, the 15 -ku became wards of Tokyo City, initially Tokyo's only independent city -shi, the six rural districts of Tokyo were consolidated in 85 towns and villages. In 1893, the three Tama districts and their 91 towns and villages became part of Tokyo. As Tokyo city's suburbs grew rapidly in the early 20th century, many towns and villages in Tokyo were merged or promoted over the years. In 1932, five complete districts with their 82 towns and villages were merged into Tokyo City and organised in 20 new wards. Also, by 1940, there were two more cities in Tokyo: Hachiōji City and Tachikawa City.
In 1943, Tokyo City was abolished, Tōkyō-fu became Tōkyō-to, and Tokyo-shi's 35 wards remained Tokyo-to's 35 wards, but submunicipal authorities of Tokyo-shi's wards which previously fell directly under the municipality, with the municipality now abolished, fell directly under prefectural or now "Metropolitan" authority. any other cities, towns and villages in Tokyo-fu stayed cities, towns and villages in Tokyo-to. The reorganisation's purpose was to consolidate the supervision of the area around the capital by eliminating the extra level of direction in Tokyo. Also, the governor was no longer called chiji, but chōkan ~"head/chief [usually: of a central government agency]" as in Hokkaidō. The central government wanted to have greater control over all local governments due to Japan's deteriorating position in World War II – for example, all mayors in the country became appointive as in the Meiji era – and over Tokyo in particular, due to the possibility of emergency in the metropolis.
After the war, Japan was forced to decentralise Tokyo again, following the general terms of democratisation outlined in the Potsdam Declaration. Many of Tokyo's special governmental characteristics disappeared during this time, and the wards took on an increasingly municipal status in the decades coming after or as a a thing that is said of. the surrender. Administratively, today's special wards are nearly indistinguishable from other municipalities.
The postwar reforms also changed the map of Tokyo significantly: In 1947, the 35 wards were reorganised into the ] In the occupation reforms, special wards, each with their own elected assemblies kugikai and mayors kuchō, were intended to be equal to other municipalities even if some restrictions still applied. For example, there was during the occupation a dedicated municipal police organization for the 23 special wards/former Tokyo City, yet the special wards public safety commission was not named by the special ward governments, but by the government of the whole "Metropolis". In 1954, independent municipal police forces were abolished loosely in the whole country, and the prefectural/"Metropolitan" police of Tokyo is again responsible for the whole prefecture/"Metropolis" and like all prefectural police forces controlled by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" public safety commission whose members are appointed by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" governor and assembly. But, as part of the "reverse course" of the 1950s some of these new rights were removed, the most obvious measure being the denial of directly elected mayors. Some of these restrictions were removed again over the decades. But it was not until the year 2000 that the special wards were fully recognised as municipal-level entities.
Independently from these steps, as Tokyo's urban growth again took up pace during the postwar economic miracle and most of the main island part of Tokyo "Metropolis" became increasingly core part of the Union of Kansai governments" Kansai kōiki-rengō which has been established by several prefectural governments in the Kansai region.
There are some differences in terminology between Tokyo and other prefectures: police and fire departments are called chō庁 instead of honbu本部, for instance. But the only functional difference between Tōkyō-to and other prefectures is that Tokyo administers wards as well as cities. Today, since the special wards have almost the same degree of independence as Japanese cities, the difference in administration between Tokyo and other prefectures is fairly minor.
In Osaka, several prominent politicians led by Tōru Hashimoto, then mayor of Osaka City and former governor of Osaka Prefecture, proposed an Osaka Metropolis plan, under which Osaka City, and possibly other neighboring cities, would be replaced by special wards similar to Tokyo's. The schedule was narrowly defeated in a 2015 referendum, and again in 2020.