Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan

A city designated by government ordinance (政令指定都市, seirei shitei toshi), also known as a designated city (指定都市, shitei toshi) or government ordinance city (政令市, seirei shi), is a Japanese city that has a population greater than 500,000 and has been designated as such by order of the Cabinet of Japan under Article 252, Section 19, of the Local Autonomy Law.

Designated cities are delegated many of the functions normally performed by prefectural governments in fields such as public education, social welfare, sanitation, business licensing, and urban planning. The city government is generally delegated the various minor administrative functions in each area, and the prefectural government retains authority over major decisions. For instance, pharmaceutical retailers and small clinics can be licensed by designated city governments, but pharmacies and hospitals are licensed by prefectural governments.

Designated cities are also required to subdivide themselves into wards (区, ku) (broadly equivalent to the boroughs of London or the boroughs of New York City), each of which has a ward office conducting various administrative functions for the city government, such as koseki and juminhyo resident registration and tax collection. In some cities, ward offices are responsible for business licensing, construction permits, and other administrative matters. The structure and the authorities of the wards are determined by municipal ordinances.

The 23 special wards of Tokyo are not part of this system, as Tokyo is a prefecture, and its wards are effectively independent cities. Although the two largest wards of Tokyo, Setagaya and Nerima, are populous enough to become designated cities, they are not considered to be "cities" within the meaning of the Local Autonomy Law and so are not designated as such.

No city designated by government ordinance has ever lost that status.

List of designated cities

Sapporo

Sendai

Niigata

Shizuoka

Hamamatsu

Nagoya

7

8

9

Fukuoka

Kumamoto

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Designated cites in Japan (except for Kanto region and Kansai area)
7: Okayama, 8: Hiroshima, 9: Kitakyushu

Saitama

Chiba

Kawasaki

Yokohama

Sagamihara

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Designated cites in Kanto region area

Nagoya

Kyoto

Osaka

Sakai

Kobe

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Designated cites in Kansai area and Western Tōkai area

Cities designated by government ordinance have been established since 1956.

Name	Japanese	Skyline	Flag	Emblem	Area (km2)	Population	Population density	Date of designation	Region	Prefecture	No. of wards	Lists of wards	Map
Chiba	千葉市				271.77	972,861	3,613	1992-04-01	Kantō	Chiba	06	List
Fukuoka	福岡市				343.39	1,579,450	4,668	1972-04-01	Kyushu	Fukuoka	07	List
Hamamatsu	浜松市				1,558.06	795,350	506	2007-04-01	Chūbu	Shizuoka	07	List
Hiroshima	広島市				906.68	1,194,524	1,321	1980-04-01	Chūgoku	Hiroshima	08	List
Kawasaki	川崎市				143.01	1,503,690	10,765	1972-04-01	Kantō	Kanagawa	07	List
Kitakyushu	北九州市				491.95	945,595	1,901	1963-04-01	Kyushu	Fukuoka	07	List
Kobe	神戸市				557.02	1,526,639	2,719	1956-09-01	Kansai	Hyōgo	09	List
Kumamoto	熊本市				390.32	737,812	1,892	2012-04-01	Kyushu	Kumamoto	05	List
Kyoto	京都市				827.83	1,468,980	1,758	1956-09-01	Kansai	Kyoto	11	List
Nagoya	名古屋市				326.45	2,283,289	7,128	1956-09-01	Chūbu	Aichi	16	List
Niigata	新潟市				726.45	807,450	1,089	2007-04-01	Chūbu	Niigata	08	List
Okayama	岡山市				789.95	720,841	912	2009-04-01	Chūgoku	Okayama	04	List
Osaka	大阪市				225.21	2,727,255	12,226	1956-09-01	Kansai	Osaka	24	List
Sagamihara	相模原市				328.91	720,986	2,198	2010-04-01	Kantō	Kanagawa	03	List
Saitama	さいたま市				217.43	1,226,656	6,072	2003-04-01	Kantō	Saitama	10	List
Sakai	堺市				149.82	833,544	5,500	2006-04-01	Kansai	Osaka	07	List
Sapporo	札幌市				1,121.26	1,955,115	1,750	1972-04-01	Hokkaido	Hokkaido	10	List
Sendai	仙台市				786.30	1,088,669	1,389	1989-04-01	Tōhoku	Miyagi	05	List
Shizuoka	静岡市				1,411.90	697,578	486	2005-04-01	Chūbu	Shizuoka	03	List
Yokohama	横浜市				437.56	3,732,616	8,588	1956-09-01	Kantō	Kanagawa	18	List

Designated city requirements

To become a candidate for designated city status, a city must have a population greater than 500,000. An application for designation is made by a city with the approval of both the city and the prefectural assemblies.

The following cities have populations greater than 500,000 but have not yet been nominated.

Name	Japanese	Flag	Emblem	Area (km2)	Population (2012)	Region	Prefecture	Map
Funabashi	船橋市			85.62	610,492	Kantō	Chiba
Hachiōji	八王子市			186.38	579,799	Kantō	Tokyo
Himeji	姫路市			534.43	536,218	Kansai	Hyōgo
Kagoshima	鹿児島市			547.58	607,257	Kyushu	Kagoshima
Kawaguchi	川口市			61.95	561,788	Kantō	Saitama
Matsuyama	松山市			429.40	516,823	Shikoku	Ehime
Utsunomiya	宇都宮市			416.85	513,722	Kantō	Tochigi

History

The first form of the designated city system was enacted under Japan local government system in 1878 with the introduction of "wards." Under that system, wards existed in every city. Most cities had only one ward, but the largest cities at the time (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto) were divided into 15, four, and two wards, respectively.

The municipal system enacted in 1889 replaced ward assemblies with city assemblies but retained ward assemblies in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, which had no assembly of their own but were governed by the prefectural assembly. In 1898, the three cities were allowed to form city assemblies. The ward system was adopted by three more cities prior to World War II: Nagoya (1908), Yokohama (1927), and Kobe (1931). Under a 1911 statute, wards were granted a corporate personality and so treated as local entities.

Following the war, the 1947 Local Autonomy Law grandfathered in the five subdivided cities (Tokyo having become a prefecture in 1943) as special cities (特別市, tokubetsu shi). The system was replaced by the designated city system when the Local Autonomy Law was amended, in 1956.

During the ensuing Japanese economic growth period, the government required designated cities to be forecast to reach a population of one million within the near future, but the requirement was dropped in 2005 to accommodate several geographically large cities that were formed by mergers, under the government of Junichiro Koizumi.

See also

• Administrative divisions of Japan
• Urban area

External links

• Directory of Designated Cities and Mayors (in English)
• "Japan's Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy: The Race for Local Power in the 2000s", by A.J. Jacobs at Urban Studies Research, Vol. 2011 (2011); doi:10.1155/2011/692764
• "Large City System of Japan"; graphic shows designated cities compared with other Japanese city types at p. 1 [PDF 7 of 40]
• "Growth in Second Tier Cities – Urban Policy Lessons from Japan" Archived 17 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine briefing by CLAIR London on classes of Japanese cities (PDF)
• Text of the Local Government Law (in Japanese)