Cities of Japan

A city (市, shi^?) is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as towns (町, machi^?) and villages (村, mura^?), with the difference that they are not a component of districts (郡, gun^?). Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947.

Article 8 of the Local Autonomy Law sets the following conditions for a municipality to be designated as a city:

The designation is approved by the prefectural governor and the Minister for Internal Affairs.

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