City designated by government ordinance

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Administrative divisions of Japan
Prefectural level
Prefectures (都道府県 todōfuken)
Subprefectural level
Subprefectures (支庁 shichō) Designated cities (政令指定都市 seirei-shitei-toshi) Districts (郡 gun)
Municipal level
Core cities (中核市 chūkaku-shi) Special cities (特例市 tokurei-shi) Cities (市 shi) Special wards (Tokyo) (特別区 tokubetsu-ku) Wards (区 ku) Towns (町 chō, machi) Villages (村 son, mura)

A city designated by government ordinance (a designated city or Government Ordinance City (Japanese: 政令指定都市 seirei shitei toshi or 政令市 seirei shi)) is a Japanese city that has a population greater than 500,000; has important economic and industrial functions; and that is considered a "major city". The classification was created by the first clause of Article 252, Section 19 of the Local Autonomy Law of Japan.

As of 2007, no cities that have been granted this status have later lost it.

Designated cities are delegated many of the functions normally performed by prefectural governments, making them almost on par with the prefectures themselves. Tokyo is notably absent from the list, as it is legally not a single city; instead, Tokyo is Japan's sole designated metropolis (都 to) and has full prefectural powers.

[edit] List of designated cities

The list designated cities of Japan below is arranged by the date they were granted designation status.

• Kobe (1956)
• Kyoto (1956)
• Nagoya (1956)
• Osaka (1956)
• Yokohama (1956)
• Kitakyushu (1963)
• Fukuoka (1972)
• Kawasaki (1972)
• Sapporo (1972)
• Hiroshima (1980)
• Sendai (1989)
• Chiba (1992)
• Saitama (2003)
• Shizuoka (2005)
• Sakai (April 1 2006)
• Niigata (April 1 2007)
• Hamamatsu (April 1 2007)

Okayama and Sagamihara are slated to become designated somewhere in the 2000s, due to the possible upcoming mergers.

[edit] List of mayors

Current Mayor	City	Elected	Office expires
Fumio Ueda	Sapporo, Hokkaido	June 8, 2003	2011
Katsuhiko Umehara	Sendai, Miyagi	August 22, 2005	2009
Soichi Aikawa	Saitama, Saitama	May 27, 2001	2009
Keiichi Tsuruoka	Chiba, Chiba	July 10, 2001	2009
Hiroshi Nakada	Yokohama, Kanagawa	April 8, 2002	2010
Takao Abe	Kawasaki, Kanagawa	November 19, 2001	2009
Akira Shinoda	Niigata, Niigata	November 18, 2002	2010
Zenkichi Kojima	Shizuoka, Shizuoka	April 13, 2003	2011
Yasutomo Suzuki	Hamamatsu, Shizuoka	May 1, 2007	2011
Takehisa Matsubara	Nagoya, Aichi	April 28, 1997	2009
Yorikane Masumoto	Kyoto, Kyoto	February 25, 1996	2008
Kunio Hiramatsu	Osaka, Osaka	December 19, 2007	2011
Keisuke Kihara	Sakai, Osaka	October 8, 2001	2009
Tasuo Yada	Kobe, Hyogo	November 20, 2001	2009
Tadatoshi Akiba	Hiroshima, Hiroshima	February 23, 1999	2011
Hiroshi Yoshida	Fukuoka, Fukuoka	December 7, 2006	2010
Kenji Kitahashi	Kitakyushu, Fukuoka	February 20, 2007	2011

Note: the exact day on which the office term of a given person expires is one day prior to the day when the person was elected. For example Fumio Ueda's office term will expire on June 7, 2011 since he was elected on June 8.

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) Text of the Local Government Laweo:Granda Urbo kun Esceptoj

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