Geography answer: capital, prefecture, county, road, city, town, village - talk about the administrative divisions of neighboring Japan

As for the administrative divisions of Japan, Geography Answer, which focuses on geographical knowledge and travel information, will give a brief introduction.

Generally speaking, Japan's administrative divisions have two levels. The first-level divisions are divided into capitals, prefectures, counties, and roads, and the second-level divisions are divided into cities, towns, and villages.

Prefectures, prefectures, cities, towns and villages are called local public organizations and implement local autonomy, that is, implementing local politics and administration in accordance with the wishes of residents and in accordance with democratic principles. Prefectures are wide-area local public organizations that include municipalities, towns and villages, and are the superior agencies of municipalities, towns and villages.

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, namely 1st Prefecture (Tokyo), 1st Prefecture (Hokkaido), 2nd Prefecture (Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka Prefecture), and 43 counties. The largest area is Hokkaido, with 83,519 square kilometers, and the smallest is Osaka Prefecture with only 1,876 square kilometers; the most populous is the capital, Tokyo, with more than 13 million people, and the smallest is Utori Prefecture, with about 600,000 people. ?

Cities, towns, and villages are grassroots administrative organizations. A Japanese village is equivalent to a township in our country, with strong rural and agricultural characteristics; a town has more urban characteristics than a village, and is equivalent to a town in our country; a city is a town larger than a town, but does not have districts or districts. Establish a comprehensive dispatched office, and only set up several offices, windows, etc. according to the needs of individual tasks. There are more than 3,200 municipalities, towns and villages in Japan. Among them, Yokohama City, the most populous city, has 3 million people, and Toyama Village, which has a smaller population, has only more than 200 people. The largest area is Ashori Village with an area of ??1,400 square kilometers, and the smallest Ichimachi is only 1.5 square kilometers. kilometer.

There are four conditions for the establishment of a Japanese city: ① The population is more than 50,000; ② The number of households in the central urban area accounts for more than 60 of the total number of households in the city; ③ The population engaged in urban business accounts for the total population 60 or above; ④ In accordance with the provisions of prefectural regulations, all necessary facilities in the city, such as colleges and universities, libraries, environmental sanitation, and social service facilities, etc. In order to promote the merger of towns and villages, Japan has twice lowered the municipal standard, stipulating that within a specific period, towns and villages with a population of more than 30,000 people can also establish cities. Therefore, some of the existing cities have less than 50,000 people. To establish a city, the relevant towns and villages submit an application, and it is established after approval by the prefectural assembly and consultation with the Minister of Autonomy.

The conditions for establishing a town are stipulated by the prefectures themselves. For example, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government stipulates that there are three conditions for the formation of a town: ① The population is more than 18,000; ② The number of residents in the central area accounts for 50% of the total number of households in the area. and above; ③The population engaged in industry, commerce and self-employment accounts for more than 80% of the entire region's population.

In order to solve the problem of urban expansion, the Japanese government revised the "Local Autonomy Law" in 1956, stipulating that "designated cities" could be established. The meaning of designated cities is: any relatively developed city with a population of more than 500,000 and designated by the cabinet decree, the state gives it a part of the powers equivalent to the capital, prefecture, county, and province. Compared with ordinary cities, it enjoys urban planning, There are 17 special powers including preventing infectious diseases and organizing various welfare undertakings. In this way, many matters in designated cities can be exempted from the supervision of prefectures and counties and directly guided by the minister in charge, which is similar to our country's separately planned cities in many aspects.

?There are currently 10 designated cities in Japan. They are: Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Yokohama, Kobe, Kitakyushu, Kawaki, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Hiroshima. The populations of these 10 cities all exceed 1 million. In addition, there are eight cities with a population of more than 500,000, including Jie City. These cities have requested to become designated cities, but have never received approval from the Minister of Autonomy.

Above!