A city (市, shi^?) is a local administrative unit in Japan. They are ranked on the same level as towns (machi) and villages (mura), but cities are not part of Districts (gun). Like other contemporary administrative units, they were by with the Local Autonomy Law of 1947. A town (町 chō) is a local administrative unit in Japan. ... A village (村 mura or son) is a local administrative unit in Japan. ... The district (郡; gun) was most recently used as an administrative unit in Japan between 1878 and 1921 and is roughly equivalent to the county of the United States. ... The Local Autonomy Law (地方自治法 Chihō-jichi-hō) of Japan was passed as Law No. ...

Generally, a village or town can be promoted to a city when its population increases above fifty thousand, and a city can (but need not) be demoted to a town or village when its population decreases below fifty thousand. The least-populated city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has population of mere six thousand, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido, has nearly forty thousand. Larger cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants can achieve a special status, special city, core city or designated city. Utashinai (歌志内市; -shi) is a city located in Hokkaido. ... Otofuke (音更町; -chou) is a town located in Katō District, Tokachi, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Special Cities (特例市) of Japan are cities with populations of at least 200,000, and are delegated a subset of the functions delegated to core cities. ... Core cities are cities of Japan designated by Article 252, Clause 22 and the first term of the Local Autonomy Law. ... A city designated by government ordinance, or Government Ordinance City (政令指定都市 seirei shitei toshi or 政令市 seirei shi) is a city of Japan that has a population greater than 500,000 and important economic and industrial functions, and that is considered a major city in Japan. ...

Tokyo is informally thought of as a city in the western world, but is not a city under Japanese law. The "Tokyo Metropolitan Government" has prefectural powers and incorporated cities are within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government limits. Tokyo , literally Eastern capital)   is the capital of Japan. ... The prefectures of Japan are the countrys 47 sub-national jurisdictions: one metropolis (都 to), Tokyo; one circuit (道 dō), Hokkaidō; two urban prefectures (府 fu), Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures (県 ken). ...

See List of cities in Japan and List of cities in Japan by population for a complete list. This is a list of cities and districts in Japan. ... This is a list of cities in Japan by population (estimated). ...