Subprefectures of Japan

Administrative divisions
of Japan
Prefectural
Prefectures
Sub-prefectural
Municipal
Sub-municipal

Subprefecture of Japan (支庁 shichō) are a Japanese form of self-government which focuses on local issues below the prefectural level. It acts as part of the greater administration of the state and as part of a self-government system.[1]

History

They were given a definite form in 1878 (Meiji 11).[2]

The Meiji government established the sub-prefecture ( -gun) as an administrative unit.[1]

In 1888 (Meiji 21), the sub-prefecture as a form of self-government was officially recognized as more general than civic corporations like cities, towns and villages.[2]

Certain prefectures of Japan are now, or once were, divided into subprefectures. The subprefecture is the jurisdiction surrounding a "branch office" of the prefectural government. Normally, the area of a subprefecture consists of a few to a dozen cities, towns, and/or villages. Subprefectures are formed to provide services of the prefectural government in geographically remote areas. They are usually not used in postal addresses.

Existing subprefectures

Historical subprefectures

In addition, in 1907 Japan formed Karafuto Prefecture to govern the island of Sakhalin. Karafuto was divided into four subprefectures: Toyohara (in present-day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Maoka (in present-day Kholmsk), Esutoru (in present-day Uglegorsk) and Shikuka (in present-day Makarov).

A number of islands gained by Japan in the Treaty of Versailles were placed under the direction of a South Pacific Prefecture (南洋庁 Nan'yōchō) from 1922 to 1945. This was divided into six subprefectures, on the islands of Saipan, Yap, Palau, Truk, Pohnpei and Jaluit. In November 1943, the six subprefectures were merged into "eastern," "western" and "northern" subprefectures, which remained in place until Japan's surrender.

Taiwan during Japanese rule initially had its prefectures – ken (), later termed shū () and chō () – subdivided into shichō. Most of the later subprefectures were named gun (, also "districts"). Some English texts translate "sub-prefecture" differently, using it instead for the chō of Taiwan, which were remote prefectures that were much less populated, once considered "sub-", or "lesser", prefectures, i.e., Hōko (the Pescadores), Karenkō (Hualian) and Taitō (Taitung).[7][8] The offshore Hōko was home to the last two remaining subprefectures named shichō: Makō (馬公支廳) and Mōan (望安支廳).
(See: Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945))

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Imperial Japanese Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. (1903). Japan in the beginning of the 20th century, p. 80.
  2. 1 2 Imperial Japanese Commission, p. 81.
  3. Favro, S. (2010). Island Sustainability, p. 195 citing Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Outline of Hachijo Subprefecture, 2009.
  4. Favro, p. 195 citing Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Outline of Miyake Subprefecture, 2009.
  5. Yong Hong, Seoung. (2009). Maritime Boundary Disputes, Settlement Processes, and the Law of the Sea, p. 148.
  6. Favro, p. 195 citing Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Outline of Oshima Subprefecture, 2009.
  7. Kratoska, Paul H. (2006). Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire, p. 102.
  8. Morris, Andrew. (2010). Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan, p. 17.
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