In everyday English, Tokyo as a whole is also referred to as a city even though it contains 62 cities, towns, villages and special wards. 2 Differences from other municipalitiesĪnalogues exist in historic and contemporary Chinese and Korean administration: 'Special wards' are city-independent wards, analogously, ' special cities/special cities' (teukbyeol-si/tokubetsu-shi) are province-/prefecture-independent cities and were intended to be introduced under SCAP in Japan, too but in Japan, implementation was stalled, and in 1956 special cities were replaced in the Local Autonomy Law with designated major cities which gain additional autonomy, but remain part of prefectures.They are a group of 23 municipalities there is no associated single government body separate from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government which governs all 62 municipalities of Tokyo, not only the special wards. Today, all wards refer to themselves as a city in English, but the Japanese designation of special ward ( tokubetsu-ku) remains unchanged. In Japanese, they are collectively also known as 'Wards area of Tokyo Metropolis' ( 東京都区部, Tōkyō-to kubu), 'former Tokyo City' ( 旧東京市, kyū-Tōkyō-shi ), or less formally the 23 wards ( 23区, nijūsan-ku) or just Tokyo ( 東京, Tōkyō) if the context makes obvious that this does not refer to the whole prefecture.

The question of whether special wards actually are municipalities with full local autonomy rights at all remained a political and legal issue for decades. Minority, mostly leftist calls for a restoration of Tokyo City ( 東京市復活, Tōkyō-shi fukkatsu) were not answered. During the Occupation of Japan, municipal autonomy was restored to former Tokyo City by the establishment of special wards, each with directly elected mayor and assembly, as in any other city, town or village in Tokyo and the rest of the country.

The Special wards of Tokyo ( 東京特別区, Tōkyō tokubetsu-ku) occupy the land that was Tokyo City in its 1936 borders before it was abolished under the Tōjō Cabinet in 1943 to become directly ruled by the prefectural government, then renamed to 'Metropolitan'. They are city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy largely comparable to other forms of municipalities.Īlthough the autonomy law today allows for special wards to be established in other prefectures, to date, they only exist in the Tokyo Metropolis which consists of 23 special wards and 39 other, ordinary municipalities ( cities, towns, and villages). Special wards ( 特別区, tokubetsu-ku) are a special form of municipalities in Japan under the 1947 Local Autonomy Law.

Tourist map of tokyo pdf map