Wards of Tokyo

Special wards of Tokyo 東京特別区
Located in the green highlights
Country	Japan
Island	Honshu
Region	Kantō
Prefecture	Tokyo
Area
• 23 special wards	619 km2 (239 sq mi)
Population (October 1, 2016)
• 23 special wards	9,375,104
• Density	15,146/km2 (39,230/sq mi)

The special wards (特別区^?, tokubetsu-ku) are 23 municipalities that together make up the core and the most populous part of Tokyo, Japan. Together, they occupy the land that was originally Tokyo City before it was abolished in 1943 to become part of the newly created Tokyo Metropolis. The special wards' structure was established under the Japanese Local Autonomy Act and is unique to Tokyo. Nevertheless, analogues exist in historic and contemporary Chinese and Korean administration.

In Japanese, they are commonly known as the 23 wards (23区^?, nijūsan-ku). Confusingly, all wards refer to themselves as a city in English, but the Japanese designation of special ward (tokubetsu ku) remains unchanged. Moreover, in everyday English, Tokyo as a whole is also referred to as a city. Thus, the closest English equivalents for the special wards would be the London boroughs, and this can help to understand their structures and functions.

This is merely a grouping of special wards; there is no associated single government body of wards separate from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Functionally, this eliminated the City of Tokyo as a layer of administration, streamlining the government. Recently, movements to reorganize other cities within their prefectures in a similar fashion have gained currency, that of Osaka, Nagoya (Chukyo), Yokohama (Kanagawa) remain active. If reorganized, those prefectures would also contain special wards and the aforementioned cities would be dissolved. In that sense, the term special does not refer something akin to a capital district, rather to a former government entity having undergone a process of streamlining.

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Wikipedia