Municipalities of Japan in the context of "Koseki"

The 23 special wards (特別区, tokubetsu-ku) of Tokyo are a unique form of municipality under Japan's 1947 Local Autonomy Law. They are city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy. Together, they cover 627 km (242 sq mi) and, as of 2024, house roughly 9.8 million residents, yielding a density of about 15,742 people/km (40,770 people/sq mi). Similar ward systems are legally possible in other prefectures, but none have been established.

Tokyo's 23 special wards unite with 39 ordinary municipalities (cities, towns and villages) to their west to form Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture. Without the ordinary municipalities the special wards account for what was the core Tokyo City, before this was abolished in 1943 under the Tōjō Cabinet. It was four years later, during the Occupation of Japan, that autonomy was restored to Tokyo City by means of the special wards, each being given a directly elected mayor and assembly like all other cities, towns and villages in Japan.

The Local Autonomy Act (地方自治法, Chihō-jichi-hō), passed by the House of Representatives and the House of Peers on March 28, 1947 and promulgated as Law No. 67 of 1947 on April 17, is an Act of devolution that established most of Japan's contemporary local government structures and administrative divisions, including prefectures, municipalities and other entities. On July 16, 1999, the law was amended to eliminate administrative functions imposed upon local governments by the central governments and to establish Committee for Settling National-Local Disputes. The law and other relevant laws have been amended after the revision to promote decentralization.　

Yokohama (Japanese: 横浜; pronounced [jokohama] ) is the second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone.

Yokohama was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1859 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city, after Kobe opened in 1853. Yokohama is the home of many Japan's firsts in the Meiji era, including the first foreign trading port and Chinatown (1859), European-style sport venues (1860s), English-language newspaper (1861), confectionery and beer manufacturing (1865), daily newspaper (1870), gas-powered street lamps (1870s), railway station (1872), and power plant (1882). Yokohama developed rapidly as Japan's prominent port city following the end of Japan's relative isolation in the mid-19th century and is today one of its major ports along with Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Tokyo and Chiba.

Japanese newspapers (新聞 shinbun, or older spelling shimbun), similar to their worldwide counterparts, run the gamut from general news-oriented papers to special-interest newspapers devoted to economics, sports, literature, industry, and trade. Newspapers are circulated either nationally, by region (such as Kantō or Kansai), by each prefecture, or by each city. Some newspapers publish as often as two times a day (morning and evening editions) while others publish weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. The five leading national daily newspapers in Japan are the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun and the Nikkei Shimbun. The first two are generally considered liberal/left-leaning while the latter three are considered conservative/right-leaning. The most popular national daily English-language newspaper in Japan is The Japan Times.

The majority of the newspaper articles are printed vertically. Japanese law prohibits newspaper publishers to be publicly traded.

Nishikyō-ku (西京区) is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Its name means "west capital ward" and it is situated on the western edge of the city, to the south of center. The ward was established on October 1, 1976, after it was separated from Ukyō-ku. The Katsura River is the border between Nishikyo-ku and Ukyo-ku.

Katsura Imperial Villa, on that river, is one of the most widely known features of Nishikyo-ku. Saihō-ji, the Moss Temple, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the ward.

A Cultural Property (文化財, bunkazai) is administered by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), and includes tangible properties (structures and works of art or craft); intangible properties (performing arts and craft techniques); folk properties both tangible and intangible; monuments historic, scenic and natural; cultural landscapes; and groups of traditional buildings. Buried properties and conservation techniques are also protected. Together these cultural properties are to be preserved and utilized as the heritage of the Japanese people.

To protect Japan's cultural heritage, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties contains a "designation system" (指定制度) under which selected important items are designated as Cultural Properties, which imposes restrictions on the alteration, repair, and export of such designated objects. Designation can occur at a national (国指定文化財), prefectural (都道府県指定文化財) or municipal (市町村指定文化財) level. As of 1 February 2012, there were approximately 16,000 nationally designated, 21,000 prefecturally designated, and 86,000 municipally designated properties (one property may include more than one item). Besides the designation system there also exists a "registration system" (登録制度), which guarantees a lower level of protection and support.

Fushimi (伏見区, Fushimi-ku) is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Famous places in Fushimi include the Fushimi Inari Shrine, with thousands of torii lining the paths up and down a mountain; Fushimi Castle, originally built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with its rebuilt towers and gold-lined tea-room; and the Teradaya, an inn at which Sakamoto Ryōma was attacked and injured about a year before his assassination. Also of note is the Gokōgu shrine, which houses a stone used in the construction of Fushimi Castle. The water in the shrine is particularly famous and it is recorded as one of Japan's 100 best clear water spots.

Although written with different characters now, the name Fushimi (which used to be its own "town") originally comes from fusu + mizu, meaning "hidden water" or "underground water". In other words, the location was known for good spring water. The water of Fushimi has particularly soft characteristics, making it an essential component to the particular type of sake brewed in Fushimi. This also explains why the area developed as a sake-brewing center in Kyoto. Today, Fushimi is the second greatest area of Japan in terms of sake production, and is where the sake company Gekkeikan was founded.

Iida (飯田市, Iida-shi) is a city in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 March 2019, Iida had an estimated population of 101,536, and a population density of 154 persons per km. The total area of the city is 658.66 square kilometres (254.31 sq mi). Iida is an environmental model city (環境モデル都市, Kankyō moderu toshi), a municipality designated by the Japanese government to be a model for making large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions towards a low-carbon society.