Misplaced Pages

#281718

25-503: Tokyo Prefecture ( 東京府 , Tōkyō-fu ) was a Japanese government entity that existed between 1868 and 1943. When the prefecture was established with the merger of the two shogunate city administrations in the Meiji restoration in 1868, Tokyo initially consisted only of the former city area of the shogunate capital Edo . Beginning in 1871, the territory of Tokyo was expanded beyond Edo in several steps to reach roughly its present extent with

50-423: A number of urban cities—including Edo , Kyoto , Nagasaki , Nara , Nikkō , and Osaka —were considered important; and some were designated as a "shogunal city". The number of such "shogunal cities" rose from three to eleven under Tokugawa administration. This Japanese history–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tokyo City Tokyo City ( 東京市 , Tōkyō-shi )

75-538: A whole, e.g. today's Hiroshima City ( -shi ) was then Hiroshima-ku ; the three major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto were each subdivided into several such wards. In Tokyo Prefecture, this created 15 wards (listed below) and six counties/districts. In 1888, the central government created the legal framework for the current system of cities ( shi ) that granted some basic local autonomy rights – with some similarities to Prussia's system of local self-government as Meiji government advisor Albert Mosse heavily influenced

100-637: The Tama transfer in 1893. The surrounding former shogunate domain (incl. hatamoto fiefs) in Musashi province was initially administered by Musashi governors, but then split up between the prefectures Shinagawa , Kosuge and Ōmiya/Urawa . In 1871/72, the surrounding rural areas from these three prefectures and the Setagaya exclave of Hikone ex-domain/prefecture were merged into Tokyo. The "system of large and small/major and minor districts" (大区小区制, daiku-shōku-sei ) which

125-525: The "Metropolis". In 1944/45, the establishment of regional bureaus created new parallel local administrative structures, lacking even the limited control by elected assemblies that prefectures and municipalities featured. And on the local level, the pre-existing neighbourhood associations (see chōnaikai and Tonarigumi ) had been tied into the totalitarian Yokusankai vision and were endowed with far-reaching authority to establish an authoritarian system of control reaching down even to individual citizens. But

150-665: The Imperial government than the governors of other prefectures. He became a shinninkan (親任官), meaning he was appointed directly by the Emperor, in the same procedure as a member of the Cabinet, the governors of Chōsen/Korea or Taiwan/Formosa, or an Army General or Navy Admiral. The "Metropolis" is not to be confused with the Tokyo metropolitan area which extends into prefectures other than Tokyo and, depending on definition, may or may not include all of

175-532: The Tama transfer, Tokyo City remained the dominant part of Tokyo in terms of population and economic strength. That increased further during the progressing industrialization and the explosive growth of the city in the early 20th century, only temporarily set back by the devastation brought about by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. The outskirts grew, but eventually Tokyo City's dominance within Tokyo only increased again as many of

200-757: The actual reform was carried out later as part of the Tōjō cabinet's wartime authoritarian centralization measures (or "simplification of local government"). Not only was the Home Ministry control over prefectures and municipalities tightened as in the whole country – municipal mayors became appointive similar to the Meiji era –; Tokyo's prefectural government and Tokyo City's municipal government were indeed unified into one "Metropolitan" government, but under still tighter central government supervision. Thus, in 1943, 86 of Tokyo's 87 municipalities remained Tokyo's municipalities, Tokyo City

225-452: The central public authority in the Japanese urban centers of this period. These bakufu -appointed officers served in a unique role, which was an amalgam of chief of police, judge, and mayor. The machi-bugyō were expected to manage a full range of administrative and judicial responsibilities. The machi-bugyō was expected to be involved in tax collection, policing, and firefighting; and at

250-466: The city did gain some additional authority under the 1922 "six major cities law" (more formally: 六大都市行政監督ニ関スル法律, roku-daitoshi gyōsei kantoku ni kan suru hōritsu , "Law relating to the administrative supervision of the six major cities"), and the governments made plans for a "Metropolis" system – the 1932 "Greater Tokyo City" mergers had been part of a Metropolis plan from the Tokyo City Assembly –,

275-636: The city of Edo , seat of the Tokugawa government, was renamed Tokyo, and the offices of Tokyo Prefecture ( -fu ) were opened. The extent of Tokyo Prefecture was initially limited to the former Edo city, but rapidly augmented to be comparable with the present Tokyo Metropolis. In 1878, the Meiji government's reorganization of local governments subdivided prefectures into counties or districts ( gun , further subdivided into towns and villages , later reorganized similar to Prussian districts ) and districts or wards ( ku ) which were in ordinary prefectures cities as

SECTION 10

#1732844238282

300-631: The countryside, but neighbourhood-sized units in larger settlements; for example, there were 13 -machi/-chō and 93 -mura in Ebara District in the 1870s, including five (one "North", three "South", one "New") for Shinagawa alone; the >100 subdivisions of Ebara were merged into only 1 town and 18 villages in 1889, today there are only four special wards left in its former territory: Shinagawa , Meguro , Ōta , Setagaya ). Initially, Tokyo contained only six [rural] districts, but other rural areas were added to Tokyo later (Izu & Ogasawara islands 1878/80,

325-535: The decades. An early proposal in the 1890s by then Home Minister Nomura Yasushi envisioned to separate the rural areas of Tokyo as Musashi prefecture and transform only Tokyo City into a "Metropolis", but it failed in the Imperial Diet. Some plans, especially those by the commoner political parties and during the "Taishō democracy" of the 1920s, envisioned a "Metropolis" more similar to a special city : an enlarged, prefecture-level city with more local autonomy. While

350-547: The explosively grown suburbs were merged into Tokyo City in 1932, including some of the largest towns in Japanese history with over 100,000 inhabitants each such as Nishisugamo  [ ja ] in Kitatoshima District  [ ja ] and Shibuya  [ ja ] in Toyotama District  [ ja ] . Various plans for a unification of the prefectural and city government were discussed over

375-537: The government began to appoint a separate mayor of Tokyo City in 1898, but retained ward-level legislation, which continues to this day in the special ward system. From 1926, the mayor was elected by the elected city council/assembly from its own ranks. The city hall of Tokyo was located in the Yūrakuchō district, on a site now occupied by the Tokyo International Forum . Tokyo became the second-largest city in

400-588: The governor actually remained in place until 1947 when the Constitution and the Local Autonomy Law made Tokyo equal with other prefectures again and gave the residents of former Tokyo City (almost) the same rights as in other municipalities with the introduction of special wards . The first gubernatorial election  [ ja ] , held in April 1947 as part of the 1st unified elections  [ ja ] ,

425-489: The organization of local government. But under a special imperial regulation, Tokyo City, like Kyoto City and Osaka City, initially did not maintain a separate mayor; instead, the (appointed) governor of Tokyo Prefecture served as mayor of Tokyo City. The Tokyo city council /assembly ( Tōkyō-shikai ) was first elected in May 1889. Each ward also retained its own assembly. City and prefectural government were separated in 1898., and

450-461: The same time, the machi-bugyō needed to play a number of judicial roles – hearing and deciding both ordinary civil cases and criminal cases. Only high-ranking hatamoto were appointed to the position of machi-bugyō because of the critical importance of what they were expected to do. The machi-bugyō were considered equal in rank to the minor daimyō . There were as many as 16 machi-bugyō located throughout Japan. During this period,

475-458: The three Tama districts 1893). When the modern municipalities were introduced in 1889, Tokyo was subdivided into c. 80 municipalities: 1 city, a handful of towns, and dozens of villages. With the Tama transfer of 1893, the number of municipalities in Tokyo grew to over 170. By 1943, there were only 87 municipalities left: 3 cities, 18 towns and 66 villages (see the List of mergers in Tokyo ). Even after

500-422: The war tide had turned, and soon, the occupation under Douglas MacArthur overturned the wartime centralization, and beyond that, introduced new far-reaching local autonomy rights for prefectures, municipalities and even citizens in the form of "direct demands" ( chokusetsu seikyū : recalls, popular initiative referendums for prefectural/municipal by-laws [excluding taxation], petitions, etc.). The title chōkan for

525-567: The world (population 4.9 million) upon absorbing several outlying districts in July 1932, giving the city a total of 35 wards. In 1943, the city was abolished along with Tokyo Prefecture to form Tokyo Metropolis and Tokyo Metropolitan Government , which was functionally a part of the central government of Japan: the governor of Tokyo became a Cabinet minister reporting directly to the Prime Minister . This system remained in place until 1947 when

SECTION 20

#1732844238282

550-514: Was a municipality in Japan and capital of Tokyo Prefecture (or Tokyo-fu ) which existed from 1 May 1889 until the establishment of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by the special wards of Tokyo . The defunct city and its prefecture became what is now Tokyo, also known as the Tokyo Metropolis or, ambiguously, Tokyo Prefecture. In 1868,

575-432: Was abolished, all municipalities and the 35 ex-city wards were now part of Tokyo Metropolis ( 東京都 , Tōkyō-to ) which continues to serve as prefectural government for all of Tokyo, but now additionally as the municipal government in former Tokyo City. The governor of Tokyo, previously chiji as in all prefectures, was now called chōkan ("head/chief" [often of a central government agency]) and tied even more closely to

600-549: Was still held as Tōkyō-to chōkan senkyo , and the first elected governor (who had also been the penultimate appointed governor from 1946 to 1947) initially still took office as chōkan , but became chiji in May 1947. 35°41′N 139°46′E  /  35.68°N 139.77°E  / 35.68; 139.77 Machi-bugy%C5%8D This bakufu title identifies a magistrate or municipal administrator with responsibility for governing and maintaining order in what were perceived to be important cities. The machi-bugyō were

625-550: Was tied to the modernized family registration system ( koseki ) created an (unpopular) subdivision of all prefectures into numbered subunits. In 1878, the ancient ritsuryō districts were reactivated as administrative units in rural areas, and the status of urban districts (-ku) was newly introduced for major cities. Under the gunkuchōson-hensei-hō (郡区町村編制法, "Law on the organization of -gun/-ku/-chō/-son"), both urban and rural districts were further subdivided into urban and rural units ( -machi and -mura , i.e. towns and villages in

#281718