Districts of 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. It was ranked at the level below
prefecture and above
city,
town or
village. The district was initially called
kōri and has ancient roots in Japan. Although the
Nihon Shoki claims they were established during the
Taika Reforms,
kōri was originally written 評. It wasn't until the Taihō Penal and Civil Code that
kōri came to be written 郡. Under the Taihō Penal and Civil Code, the administrative unit of province (国;
kuni) was above district, and the village (里;
sato or 郷;
sato) was below. The concept of 郡 has remained in some form throughout Japanese history and is still used in the
Japanese addressing system to identify the location of towns or villages. Cities belong directly to prefectures and are independent from districts, unlike cities in the US which usually belong to a county, excluding Virginia which cities are independent from counties administratively.
Because district names had been unique in the
province and nowadays
prefecture boundaries are roughly aligned to
province boundaries, most district names are unique in the
prefecture. However, the
Hokkaido Prefecture, consisting of eleven
provinces, involves a few confusing cases.
There are three Kamikawa Districts and two Nakagawa Districts in the
Hokkaido Prefecture.
*
Kamikawa District (
Ishikari), managed by the
Kamikawa Subprefecture*
Kamikawa District (
Teshio), managed by the
Kamikawa Subprefecture*
Kamikawa District (
Tokachi), managed by the
Tokachi Subprefecture*
Nakagawa District (
Teshio), managed by the
Kamikawa Subprefecture*
Nakagawa District (
Tokachi), managed by the
Tokachi SubprefectureAbuta District, Rumoi District, Sorachi District, and Yufutsu District are deceptively similar, but each of them is a single district allotted to two
subprefectures.
*
Abuta District, managed by
Iburi subprefecture and
Shiribeshi subprefecture*
Sorachi District, managed by
Kamikawa subprefecture and
Sorachi subprefecture*
Teshio District, managed by
Rumoi subprefecture and
Soya subprefecture*
Yufutsu District, managed by
Iburi subprefecture and
Kamikawa subprefectureSee also:
Geography of Japan
