Districts of Tokyo

The 23 districts

The 23 districts of Tokyo ( Japanese 東京 23 区 , Tōkyō nijūsan-ku ) are 23 parishes on the territory of the city of Tokyo, which was dissolved in 1943 . As tokubetsuku ( 特別区 , literally: “special” or “special districts”, English special wards or cities ) they have a special status as regional authorities, the superordinate administrative unit of which is the Tokyo prefecture . The districts emerged in 1947 from the former city districts of the city of Tokyo. They have only had the formal status of municipalities since 2000, but they still leave some municipal tasks to the prefecture. This administrative structure is unique in Japan and only exists in Tokyo ; in Osaka prefecture there are plans to dissolve the cities of Osaka and Sakai like Tokyo and to divide the urban areas into special districts of Osaka prefecture. According to a law passed in 2012, such an option is now open to eight major cities or twin cities and their surrounding communities: In addition to Osaka-Sakai, these are Sapporo in Hokkaidō , Saitama in Saitama Prefecture , Chiba in Chiba Prefecture , Yokohama - Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture , Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture , Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture and Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture .

In Japanese , the districts of Tokyo are often only called nijūsanku (23 区 ), "23 districts". The terms Tokyo , Tōkyō-to kubu ( 東京都区部 , about "area of the districts of Tokyo prefecture") and "former city of Tokyo" ( 旧東京市 , kyū-Tōkyō-shi ) are also used for the entirety of the 23 districts . Officially, the districts are now called City in English (e.g. Shinjuku City , Shibuya City ), the prefecture administration continues to use the translation Special Ward .

administration

The individual districts are autonomous and each have their own administration and their own elected mayor ( 区長 , kuchō ). At the same time, however, they must also work together seamlessly and function as a large urban unit in Tokyo. Certain public facilities - such as the water supply, sewage and the fire brigade - are administered by the prefecture and not by the respective district.

To fund these shared public services for the 23 counties, the prefecture collects some of the taxes that a city council would normally collect. In addition, transfer payments are made to districts that cannot finance their administration themselves.

history

After the Meiji restoration and the establishment of the Edo / Tokyo prefecture, the future urban area of Tokyo was divided into several dozen “large and small districts” in 1871 . In 1878, with the introduction of districts and municipalities belonging to the district, 15 districts were created with an appointed district mayor, and from 1880 with elected district assemblies. These districts became its boroughs when the city of Tokyo was established in 1889. In 1932, many Tokyo suburbs were incorporated, with 20 new boroughs being created. Until 1943, the districts of Tokyo were no different from the boroughs of Osaka and Kyoto .

In the Pacific War in 1943 the government eliminated the local self-government (council and mayor) of the city of Tokyo by dissolving the city administration and subordinating the districts directly to the prefectural administration appointed by the Interior Ministry and the governor appointed by the central government. The prefecture parliament - which was determined by the other inhabitants of the prefecture as well as the Tokyoites - remained as an elected institution, but had only limited influence in the empire and could be dissolved by the interior minister at any time.

During the occupation , the prefecture administration was democratized in 1947, but the city of Tokyo was not restored. Instead, the districts received a form of organization at the municipal level as “special districts”, but were later not recognized as municipalities in the sense of the 1947 constitution. At the same time, the number of districts was reduced from 35 to 23 through amalgamation. The right to elect their own mayors directly was granted to the districts by the national parliament at the beginning of the occupation following orders from the occupation administration, but withdrawn in 1952. Thereafter, the district mayors were appointed by the governor on the proposal of the district parliaments. The Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that the special districts were not local authorities and therefore had no right to directly elected mayors within the meaning of the Local Self-Government Act. It was not until 1975 (adopted in 1974) that the national parliament granted them this right again.

In another reform in 2000 (adopted in 1998), the national parliament designated the districts as local authorities. Since then, the districts officially refer to each other in English as cities (city) instead of ward (district), although the Japanese name tokubetsuku ("special district") is unchanged. At the same time they took over some public tasks from the prefecture, such as B. waste disposal. The prefecture still retains some municipal taxes and some municipal tasks.

geography

The districts differ greatly in size (from 10 to 60 km²) and population (from 65,000 to 940,000). Setagaya has the most inhabitants while the neighboring district Ōta has the largest area.

The total population of the 23 districts is 9,644,079 inhabitants (as of October 1, 2019) and thus around two thirds of the population of Tokyo Prefecture and around a quarter of the population of the greater Tokyo area (see Tokyo ). The 23 districts together have a population density of 15,505 inhabitants per km².

List of districts

List of districts in Tokyo Prefecture
Code with check digit	Surname		Area (in km²)	population	Population density ( inhabitants / km²) ²	Districts (selection)
Code with check digit	Rōmaji	Kanji	1st October 2018	1st October 2019	October 1, 2015
13101-6	Chiyoda- ku	千代田区	11.66	65,472	58,406	5417.2	Nagatachō , Kasumigaseki , Ōtemachi, Marunouchi , Akihabara , Yūrakuchō, Iidabashi ( list )
13102-4	Chūō- ku	中央区	10.21	166,536	141.183	15,758.0	Ginza , Nihombashi , Kachidoki, Tsukiji ( list )
13103-2	Minato- ku	港区	20.37	259.494	243.283	12,587.9	Odaiba , Shimbashi, Roppongi , Toranomon, Aoyama, Azabu , Hamamatsuchō, Tamachi ( list )
13104-1	Shinjuku- ku	新宿区	18.22	349,511	333,560	19,042.7	Shinjuku , Nishi-Shinjuku , Kabukichō , Ōkubo, Takadanobaba, Kagurazaka , Ichigaya ( list )
13105-9	Bunkyō- ku	文京区	11.29	235.026	219.724	20,388.3	Hongō, Yayoi, Hakusan ( list )
13106-7	Taitō- ku	台東区	10.11	208,562	198.073	20,342.1	Ueno , Asakusa
13107-5	Sumida- ku	墨田区	13.77	269,627	256.274	19,361.3	Kinshichō ( list )
13108-3	Kōtō -ku	江東区	40.16	518.371	498.109	12,824.4	Kiba, Ariake , Kameido, Tōyō ( list )
13109-1	Shinagawa- ku	品川区	22.84	411.070	386,855	17,659.3	Shinagawa, Ōimachi, Gotanda
13110-5	Meguro -ku	目黒区	14.67	287,776	277,622	19,434.9	Meguro, Nakameguro, Jiyūgaoka
13111-3	Ōta -ku	大田区	60.83	739.962	717.082	12,072.7	Ōmori, Kamata, Haneda ( list )
13112-1	Setagaya- ku	世田谷区	58.05	938.205	903.346	16,011.2	Setagaya , Sangenjaya, Shimokitazawa, Tamagawa
13113-0	Shibuya- ku	渋谷区	15.11	234,728	224,533	15,334.2	Shibuya , Harajuku , Yoyogi, Ebisu, Hiroo ( list )
13114-8	Nakano- ku	中野区	15.59	341.985	328.215	21,685.0	Nakano
13115-6	Suginami- ku	杉並区	34.06	585.186	563.997	17,025.2	Kōenji, Ogikubo, Asagaya
13116-4	Toshima- ku	豊島区	13.01	300,756	291.167	23,072.9	Ikebukuro , Senkawa, Komagome
13117-2	Kita -ku	北区	20.61	354.256	341.076	17,062.7	Akabane, Ōji, Tabata
13118-1	Arakawa- ku	荒川区	10.16	218.434	212.264	21,384.4	Nippori, Arakawa, Minamisenju
13119-9	Itabashi- ku	板橋区	32.22	583,467	561.916	17,943.1	Itabashi, Takashimadaira
13120-2	Nerima- ku	練馬区	48.08	741,649	721.722	15,291.4	Nerima, Ōizumi, Hikarigaoka
13121-1	Adachi- ku	足立区	53.25	683.110	670.122	12,775.0	Kitasenju, Takenotsuka
13122-9	Katsushika- ku	葛飾区	34.80	454,882	442.913	13,010.4	Tateishi, Aoto, Shin-Koiwa
13123-7	Edogawa- ku	江戸川区	49.90	696.014	681.298	13,900.1	Kasai, Koiwa, Chūō
	not assigned		8.60
13100-8	tokubetsu-ku ("special districts") / Tōkyō-to kubu ("district part of Tokyo Prefecture")	特別区 / 東京都区部	627.57	9,644,079	9,272,740	15,226.9