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58-399: The Hyogo Prefectural Assembly ( 兵庫県議会 , Hyōgo-ken gikai ) is the prefectural parliament of Hyōgo Prefecture . The assembly's 87 members are elected every four years in 40 districts by single non-transferable vote . Nine of the electoral districts correspond with the wards of Kobe city and the remaining 31 districts are made up of the cities and districts (towns and villages) of

116-574: 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 Tokyo in particular, due to the possibility of emergency in the metropolis. After the war, Japan was forced to decentralise Tokyo again, following

174-485: A major problem. Some of these criminologists propose an increased number of police officers. Others argue that investigations of the evidence are more expensive than police patrols and that not all crimes can be investigated, suggesting that profiling of criminal psychology should be replaced with randomized priorities of individual suspects within similar types of crime. The latter criminologists also argue that such randomization would not only fight hidden crimes by exposing

232-410: A new dō was created to cover it. The Meiji government originally classified Hokkaidō as a "Settlement Envoyship" ( 開拓使 , kaitakushi ) , and later divided the island into three prefectures (Sapporo, Hakodate, and Nemuro). These were consolidated into a single Hokkaido Department ( 北海道庁 , Hokkaido-chō ) in 1886, at prefectural level but organized more along the lines of a territory. In 1947,

290-609: A prefecture, e.g. [aꜜitɕi] and [keꜜɴ] become [aitɕi̥ꜜkeɴ] ) . 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 China , counties of Taiwan and districts of Vietnam . The different systems of parsing frame the ways in which Japanese prefectures are perceived: The prefectures are also often grouped into eight regions (地方, chihō ). Those regions are not formally specified, they do not have elected officials, nor are they corporate bodies. But

348-484: A total of 9,132,050 yen in expenses for political activities. On July 6, 2016, the Kōbe District Court handed down a prison with hard labour sentence of 3 years and a suspended sentence of 4 years after it became an unusual public trial such as detention procedures being adopted because he refused to appear at the first public trial. Furthermore, on the occasion of the scandal of Nonomura being scooped, coupled with

406-799: 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 ; Hokkaidō 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 ) . Hokkaidō 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

464-536: Is a combination of the four terms. Tokyo , capital city of Japan 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 the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, Tōkyō-fu (an urban prefecture like Kyoto and Osaka)

522-480: Is a separate electoral district. In 2014 the assembly voted to reduce the size of the assembly from 89 to 87, which resulted in a merger of the Sayō and Akō-Akō districts, as well as Takasago district's representation being reduced from two members to one. On July 1, 2014, triggered by the press conference by Ryutaro Nonomura , then assemblymember, who was accused of the unauthorized use of expenses for political activities in

580-538: Is an ancient science that may have roots as far back as c.  1700 BCE in the writings of the Code of Hammurabi . In the code, it is suggested that both the accuser and the accused had the right to present evidence they collected. In the modern era , criminals investigations are most often done by government police forces . Private investigators are also commonly hired to complete or assist in criminal investigations. An early recorded professional criminal investigator

638-399: Is derived implies a core urban zone of national importance. Before World War II, different laws applied to fu and ken, but this distinction was abolished after the war, and the two types of prefecture are now functionally the same. 43 of the 47 prefectures are referred to as ken ( 県 , pronounced [keꜜɴ] when a separate word but [ꜜkeɴ] when part of the full name of

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696-506: Is occasionally used to differentiate the government from the island itself. The prefecture's government calls itself the "Hokkaidō Government" rather than the "Hokkaidō Prefectural Government". Osaka and Kyoto Prefectures are referred to as fu ( 府 , pronounced [ɸɯꜜ] when a separate word but [ꜜɸɯ] when part of the full name of a prefecture, e.g. [kʲoꜜːto] and [ɸɯꜜ] become [kʲoːtoꜜɸɯ] ) . The Classical Chinese character from which this

754-534: Is set tightly by national laws, and prefectures and municipalities are only autonomous within that framework. Historically, during the Edo period , the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō -ruled zones ( 奉行支配地 ) around the nine largest cities in Japan, 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

812-417: Is still used today and was kept during the period of Japanese rule .) Hokkai-dō ( 北海道 , [hokkaꜜidoː] ) , the only remaining dō today, was not one of the original seven dō (it was known as Ezo in the pre-modern era). Its current name is believed to originate from Matsuura Takeshiro , an early Japanese explorer of the island. Since Hokkaidō did not fit into the existing dō classifications,

870-410: The 2015 unified local elections . It was the first election following a reduction in the number of members from 89 to 87. Elections were held in 23 districts and representatives for the remaining 17 districts were elected unopposed. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) maintained their position as the largest group in the assembly with a total of 40 seats (official candidates plus independents endorsed by

928-459: The Yamagata - Mosse laws on local government and the simultaneous Great Meiji merger was performed in 1889, the 15 -ku became wards of Tokyo City , initially Tokyo's only independent city (-shi) , the six rural districts of Tokyo were consolidated in 85 towns and villages. In 1893, the three Tama districts and their 91 towns and villages became part of Tokyo. As Tokyo city's suburbs grew rapidly in

986-615: The fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to " municipality " than " province ". Today, in turn, Japan uses its word ken ( 県 ), meaning "prefecture", to identify Portuguese districts while in Brazil the word "Prefeitura" is used to refer to a city hall . Those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight,

1044-507: The " Union of Kansai governments " (Kansai kōiki-rengō) which has been established by several prefectural governments in the Kansai 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

1102-408: 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

1160-769: The Metropolitan government. For example, the Tokyo 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

1218-600: The Prefectural Assembly brought an accusation against Nonomura to the HPP on the crime of making of false documents/uttering of same in the joint names of each faction representative, and in the subsequent criminal investigation , it became clear that he had carried out one-day Fabricated business trips spanning 197 times a year, buying cash vouchers under the guise of "postage fees" and privately using them, falsification of his credit card usage statement, etc. In January 2015,

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1276-451: 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

1334-399: The assembly. As of February 2016, the assembly was composed as follows: Most electoral districts correspond to the current cities of the prefecture, but several districts correspond to former districts which are no longer administrative units but are still used in the addresses of regional areas. Kobe, the largest city in the prefecture, is divided such that each of the city's nine wards

1392-519: 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

1450-469: The crimes or give the tracking or individual matching to the evidence lower priority. According to the hypotheses, even a minimal or nonexistent difference in the likelihood of committing crimes can be hidden behind a difference of a factor by many multiples in the likelihood of being convicted due to self-fulfilling prophecies in the statistics. These criminologists feel that criminals who are not getting caught, due to being profiled as unlikely offenders, are

1508-486: 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 Tokyo's urban growth again took up pace during the postwar economic miracle and most of the main island part of Tokyo "Metropolis" became increasingly core part of the Tokyo metropolitan area , many of the other municipalities in Tokyo have transferred some of their authority to

1566-457: The demographic composition of particular crimes during higher priority of their investigation, such as the increase of the percentage of women convicted for joining and fighting for terrorist organizations from a very low percentage (similar to those of murder and rape) to almost as many women as men (women in the 40–50 percent range in some jurisdictions) as the priority of investigating terror crimes increased, certain criminologists are expressing

1624-400: The department was dissolved, and Hokkaidō became a full-fledged prefecture. The -ken suffix was never added to its name, so the -dō suffix came to be understood to mean "prefecture". When Hokkaidō was incorporated, transportation on the island was still underdeveloped, so the prefecture was split into several "subprefectures" ( 支庁 , shichō ) that could fulfill administrative duties of

1682-583: The early 20th century, many towns and villages in Tokyo were merged or promoted over the years. In 1932, five complete districts with their 82 towns and villages were merged into Tokyo City and organised in 20 new wards. Also, by 1940, there were two more cities in Tokyo: Hachiōji City and Tachikawa City . In 1943, Tokyo City was abolished, Tōkyō-fu became Tōkyō-to , and Tokyo-shi's 35 wards remained Tokyo-to's 35 wards, but submunicipal authorities of Tokyo-shi's wards which previously fell directly under

1740-515: The fact that it was an extremely strange spectacle in which the person in question answered questions while wailing in a loud voice at a press conference, they called it a big topic in the world, and not only was it made into a joke by comedians on Variety shows, but it was also to the extent that productions like parodies of the same conference were done in some of the TV dramas and TV animations . Moreover, many MAD Movies and Doujin music that sampled

1798-405: The formal extent of the local autonomy law suggests, because of national funding and policies. Most of municipalities depend heavily on central government funding – a dependency recently further exacerbated in many regions by the declining population which hits rural areas harder and earlier (cities can offset it partly through migration from the countryside). In many policy areas, the basic framework

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1856-486: The general terms of democratisation outlined in the Potsdam Declaration . Many of Tokyo'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 Tokyo significantly: In 1947,

1914-532: The government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states (so-called dōshūsei ). The plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of subprefecture administrative regions and cut administrative costs. The Japanese government also considered a plan to merge several groups of prefectures, creating a subnational administrative division system consisting of between nine and 13 states, and giving these states more local autonomy than

1972-465: The highest returned amount of approximately 1.69 million yen for gasoline charges for his personal use, etc. Moreover, Shinobu Kamo, an LDP prefectural asm., returned approximately one million yen for Travel expenses for business trips accompanied by his family, etc. Citizen's Ombudsman Hyōgo and the like are filing criminal complaints against Iwatani and Kamo on suspicion of fraud, etc. Prefectures of Japan Each prefecture's chief executive

2030-505: 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

2088-554: 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 Tokyo-to. The reorganisation's aim was to consolidate the administration of the area around the capital by eliminating the extra level of authority in Tokyo. Also, the governor was no longer called chiji , but chōkan (~"head/chief [usually: of

2146-429: The notion that there may be more crimes that would change their demographics if they got higher priority. These criminologists theorize that in the case of limited budgets, criminal investigators rely on profiled and statistical likelihood of particular groups of people being convicted for the type of crimes that are being investigated, and ignore complaints that are filed about people who they consider less likely to commit

2204-407: 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 Tokyo is again responsible for

2262-589: The organization of the prefectural police force, the supervision of schools and the maintenance of prefectural schools (mainly high schools), prefectural hospitals, prefectural roads , the supervision of prefectural waterways and regional urban planning. Their responsibilities include tasks delegated to them by the national government such as maintaining most ordinary national roads (except in designated major cities), and prefectures coordinate and support their municipalities in their functions. De facto, prefectures as well as municipalities have often been less autonomous than

2320-499: The party), but were unable to secure the 44 seats required for an outright majority. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was reduced from 16 seats to 11. The Japan Innovation Party , contesting the unified local elections for the first time, won nine seats. Voter turnout was 40.55%, a reduction of 0.88% compared to the 2011 election. Following the election, the LDP's Noriyuki Ishikawa and Ryosuke Ueda were elected speaker and vice-speaker of

2378-447: The practice of ordering prefectures based on their geographic region is traditional. This ordering is mirrored in Japan's International Organization for Standardization (ISO) coding. From north to south (numbering in ISO 3166-2:JP order), the prefectures of Japan and their commonly associated regions are: Here are some territories that were lost after World War II. This does not include all

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2436-406: The prefectural government and keep tight control over the developing island. These subprefectures still exist today, although they have much less power than they possessed before and during World War II. They now exist primarily to handle paperwork and other bureaucratic functions. "Hokkaidō Prefecture" is, technically speaking, a redundant term because dō itself indicates a prefecture, although it

2494-572: The prefectural police sent the files on Nonomura to the Kōbe District Public Prosecutors Office (KDPPO) on suspicion of fraud and making of false documents/uttering of same . The opinion of "Severe punishment", which seeks an indictment , was marked for the prosecution. On August 18 of the same year, the KDPPO indicted Nonomura without arrest with fraud and making of false documents/uttering of same in which he cheated them out of

2552-565: The prefecture. Some other prefectures also have branch offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo , the capital of Japan , is a merged city-prefecture; a metropolis, it has features of both cities and prefectures. Each prefecture has its own mon for identification, the equivalent of a coat of arms in the West. The West's use of "prefecture" to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of "prefeitura" to describe

2610-543: The prefecture. The electoral district that represents the city of Himeji is the largest, electing 8 representatives to the assembly. The assembly is responsible for acting as a balance against the Governor of Hyōgo Prefecture who is responsible for the administration of the prefecture. This role includes enacting and amending prefectural ordinances, approving the budget and checking the administration. The 2015 Hyogo prefectural election took place on April 12, 2015, as part of

2668-506: The prefectures currently enjoy. As of August 2012, this plan was abandoned. Japan is a unitary state . The central government delegates many functions (such as education and the police force ) to the prefectures and municipalities , but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of overall government expenditure , the central government controls local budgets, tax rates , and borrowing. Prefectural government functions include

2726-402: The previous fiscal year, they conducted an investigation on political expenses for the past three fiscal years, which they carried out for all prefectural assemblymembers, and publicized the results. As a result of the investigation, it was found that 24 prefectural assembly members, which corresponds to roughly 30%, and one faction's use of a total expenditure of approximately 4.9 million yen

2784-403: The request for fiscal 2013. When suspicions first rose up, Nonomura strongly asserted that the use of expenses for political activities was something legal, but he eventually resigned from the prefectural assembly by the date July 11, and returned a total of 18.34 million yen in political expenses that he received since fiscal 2011 and approximately 890,000 yen of delinquency charge. In July,

2842-619: The rough translation stuck. The Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the han system and establishment of the prefecture system ( 廃藩置県 , haihan-chiken ) . Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the latter part of 1871, and 47 in 1888. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more political power to prefectures, and installed prefectural governors and parliaments. In 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that

2900-468: 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 Osaka, several prominent politicians led by Tōru Hashimoto , then mayor of Osaka City and former governor of Osaka Prefecture , proposed an Osaka Metropolis plan , under which Osaka City, and possibly other neighboring cities, would be replaced by special wards similar to Tokyo's. The plan

2958-622: The state of the press conference were posted on the Internet, and " N’A-! HA-HA-HA-HA-HAA! This Japan NNF NNF N-HAAAAAAAAAAAN! AU-AUOUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUAN! THIS JAPAN AU AU……AAH! I VANT TO JANGE……UGH……the world! ", which corrupted the exclamatory noises at the time of Nonomura's conference, was chosen for the Silver Award in the Internet Buzzwords Grand Prize of the same fiscal year. Hideo Iwatani, an LDP prefectural asm., had earmarked

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3016-595: The territories of the Empire of Japan such as Manchukuo . Criminal investigation Criminal investigation is an applied science that involves the study of facts that are then used to inform criminal trials . A complete criminal investigation can include searching , interviews , interrogations , evidence collection and preservation, and various methods of investigation. Modern-day criminal investigations commonly employ many modern scientific techniques known collectively as forensic science . Criminal investigation

3074-622: The township-ruled zones and the rest of the bugyo-ruled zones became ken ( 県 ) . Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo , Osaka , and Kyoto 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

3132-438: 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

3190-458: Was illegal, and demanded its return. Citizen groups filed a resident audit request against 8 Hyōgo Prefectural Assemblymembers, including those who had resigned, demanding returns alleging that there were improper expenditures in the expenses for political activities, but on November 11, 2014, the prefectural audit committee members rejected the request alleging that the billing period for fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2012 had expired. They also dismissed

3248-503: Was narrowly defeated in a 2015 referendum , and again in 2020 . Hokkaidō is referred to as a dō ( 道 , [doꜜː] ) or circuit . This term was originally used to refer to Japanese regions consisting of several provinces (e.g. the Tōkaidō east-coast region, and Saikaido west-coast region). This was also a historical usage of the character in China. (In Korea, this historical usage

3306-534: 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 Tokyo, 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

3364-509: Was the English constable . Around 1250 CE, it was recorded that the constable was to "...   record...matters of fact, not matters of judgment and law." In determining the course of investigation, many law enforcement organizations use three "indicators of suspicion" describing potential suspects, jointly known as MMO: They will also establish the relationships between the victim and any potential offenders. After observing recent changes in

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