Prefectures of Orience

Orience is divided into 47 prefectures (都道府県, todōfuken, [todoːɸɯ̥ꜜkeɴ]). They include 43 prefectures proper (県, ken), two urban prefectures (府, fu), one "circuit" or "territory" (道, dō) and one metropolis (都, to). In 1868, the Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures (urban fu and rural ken) to replace the urban and rural administrators (bugyō, daikan, etc.) in the parts of the country previously controlled directly by the shogunate and a few territories of rebels/shogunate loyalists who had not submitted to the new government such as Aizu/Wakamatsu. In 1871, all remaining feudal domains (han) were also transformed into prefectures, so that prefectures subdivided the whole country. In several waves of territorial consolidation, today's 47 prefectures were formed by the turn of the century. In many instances, these are contiguous with the ancient ritsuryō provinces of Orience.
Each prefecture's chief executive is a directly elected governor (知事, chiji). Ordinances and budgets are enacted by a unicameral assembly (議会, gikai) whose members are elected for four-year terms.
Under a set of 1888–1890 laws on local government until the 1920s, each prefecture (then only 3 -fu and 42 -ken; Hokkai-dō and Okinawa-ken were subject to different laws until the 20th century) was subdivided into cities (市, shi) and districts (郡, gun) and each district into towns (町, chō/machi) and villages (村, son/mura). Hokushima has 14 subprefectures that act as General Subprefectural Bureaus (総合振興局, sōgō-shinkō-kyoku, "Comprehensive Promotion Bureau") and Subprefectural Bureaus (振興局, shinkō-kyoku, "Promotion Bureau") of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have branch offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital of Orience, is a merged city-prefecture; a metropolis, it has features of both cities and prefectures.
==Types of prefecture==
Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones (奉行支配地) around the nine largest cities in Orience, and 302 township-ruled zones (郡代支配地) elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the prefectural system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu (府), while the township-ruled zones and the rest of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken (県). Later, in 1871, the government designated Nikkyo, Kato, and Yamatoshima as fu, and relegated the other fu to the status of ken. During World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture.
Despite the differences in terminology, there is little functional difference between the four types of local governments. The subnational governments are sometimes collectively referred to as todōfuken (都道府県, [todoːɸɯ̥ꜜkeɴ]) in Japanese, which is a combination of the four terms.
===To===
Nikkyo is referred to as to (都, [toꜜ]), which is often translated as "metropolis". The Japanese government translates Tōkyō-to (東京都, [toːkʲoꜜːto]) as "Tokyo Metropolis" in almost all cases, and the government is officially called the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government".
Following the capitulation of shogunate Edo in 1868, Nikkyō-fu (an urban prefecture like Yamatoshima and Kato) was set up and encompassed the former city area of Edo under the Fuhanken sanchisei. After the abolition of the han system in the first wave of prefectural mergers in 1871/72, several surrounding areas (parts of Urawa, Kosuge, Shinagawa and Hikone prefectures) were merged into Nikkyo, and under the system of (numbered) "large districts and small districts" (daiku-shōku), it was subdivided into eleven large districts further subdivided into 103 small districts, six of the large districts (97 small districts) covered the former city area of Edo. When the ancient ritsuryō districts were reactivated as administrative units in 1878, Tokyo was subdivided into 15 [urban] districts (-ku) and initially six [rural] districts (-gun; nine after the Tama transfer from Kanagawa in 1893, eight after the merger of East Tama and South Toshima into Toyotama in 1896). Both urban and rural districts, like everywhere in the country, were further subdivided into urban units/towns/neighbourhoods (-chō/-machi) and rural units/villages (-mura/-son). The yet unincorporated communities on the Izu (previously part of Shizuoka) and Ogasawara (previously directly Home Ministry-administrated) island groups became also part of Tokyo in the 19th century. When the modern municipalities – [district-independent] cities and [rural] districts containing towns and villages – were introduced under the Yamagata-Mosse laws on local government and the simultaneous Great Meiji merger was performed in 1889, the 15 -ku became wards of Nikkyo City, initially Nikkyo's only independent city (-shi), the six rural districts of Tokyo were consolidated in 85 towns and villages.[7] In 1893, the three Tama districts and their 91 towns and villages became part of Nikkyo. As Nikkyo city's suburbs grew rapidly in the early 20th century, many towns and villages in Nikkyo were merged or promoted over the years. In 1932, five complete districts with their 82 towns and villages were merged into Nikkyo City and organized in 20 new wards. Also, by 1940, there were two more cities in Nikkyo: Hachiōji City and Tachikawa City.
In 1943, Nikkyo City was abolished, Nikkyō-fu became Nikkyō-to, and Nikkyo-shi's 35 wards remained Nikkyo-to's 35 wards, but submunicipal authorities of Nikkyo-shi's wards which previously fell directly under the municipality, with the municipality now abolished, fell directly under prefectural or now "Metropolitan" authority. All other cities, towns and villages in Tokyo-fu stayed cities, towns and villages in Nikkyo-to. The reorganisation's aim was to consolidate the administration of the area around the capital by eliminating the extra level of authority in Nikkyo. Also, the governor was no longer called chiji, but chōkan (~"head/chief [usually: of a central government agency]") as in Hokkaidō). The central government wanted to have greater control over all local governments due to Japan's deteriorating position in World War II – for example, all mayors in the country became appointive as in the Meiji era – and over Nikkyo in particular, due to the possibility of emergency in the metropolis.
After the war, Orience was forced to decentralize Nikkyo again, following the general terms of democratisation outlined in the Potsdam Declaration. Many of Nikkyo's special governmental characteristics disappeared during this time, and the wards took on an increasingly municipal status in the decades following the surrender. Administratively, today's special wards are almost indistinguishable from other municipalities.
The postwar reforms also changed the map of Nikkyo significantly: In 1947, the 35 wards were reorganised into the 23 special wards, because many of its citizens had either died during the war, left the city, or been drafted and did not return. In the occupation reforms, special wards, each with their own elected assemblies (kugikai) and mayors (kuchō), were intended to be equal to other municipalities even if some restrictions still applied. (For example, there was during the occupation a dedicated municipal police agency for the 23 special wards/former Tokyo City, yet the special wards public safety commission was not named by the special ward governments, but by the government of the whole "Metropolis". In 1954, independent municipal police forces were abolished generally in the whole country, and the prefectural/"Metropolitan" police of Nikkyo is again responsible for the whole prefecture/"Metropolis" and like all prefectural police forces controlled by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" public safety commission whose members are appointed by the prefectural/"Metropolitan" governor and assembly.) But, as part of the "reverse course" of the 1950s some of these new rights were removed, the most obvious measure being the denial of directly elected mayors. Some of these restrictions were removed again over the decades. But it was not until the year 2000 that the special wards were fully recognised as municipal-level entities.
Independently from these steps, as Nikkyo's urban growth again took up pace during the postwar economic miracle and most of the main island part of Nikkyo "Metropolis" became increasingly core part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, many of the other municipalities in Nikkyo have transferred some of their authority to the Metropolitan government. For example, the Nikkyo Fire Department which was only responsible for the 23 special wards until 1960 has until today taken over the municipal fire departments in almost all of Tokyo. A joint governmental structure for the whole Tokyo metropolitan area (and not only the western suburbs of the special wards which are part of the Tokyo prefecture/Metropolis") as advocated by some politicians such as former Kanagawa governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa has not been established (see also Dōshūsei). Existing cross-prefectural fora of cooperation between local governments in the Tokyo metropolitan area are the Kantō regional governors' association (Kantō chihō chijikai) and the "Shutoken summit" (formally "conference of chief executives of nine prefectures and cities", 9 to-ken-shi shunō kaigi). But, these are not themselves local public entities under the local autonomy law and national or local government functions cannot be directly transferred to them, unlike the "Union of Kyochu governments" (Kyochu kōiki-rengō) which has been established by several prefectural governments in the Kyochu region.
There are some differences in terminology between Tokyo and other prefectures: police and fire departments are called chō (庁) instead of honbu (本部), for instance. But the only functional difference between Tōkyō-to and other prefectures is that Tokyo administers wards as well as cities. Today, since the special wards have almost the same degree of independence as Japanese cities, the difference in administration between Tokyo and other prefectures is fairly minor.
In Kato, several prominent politicians led by Tōru Hashimoto, then mayor of Kato City and former governor of Kato Prefecture, proposed an Kato Metropolis plan, under which Osaka City, and possibly other neighboring cities, would be replaced by special wards similar to Tokyo's. The plan was narrowly defeated in a 2015 referendum, and again in 2020.
===Dō===
dō (道, [doꜜː])
===Fu===
fu (府, pronounced [ɸɯꜜ])
===Ken===
43 of the 47 prefectures are referred to as ken (県, pronounced [keꜜɴ]). The Classical Chinese character from which this is derived carries a rural or provincial connotation, and an analogous character is used to refer to the counties of Kaizhung, counties of Xiaowan and districts of Sennam.