Bureaucratically speaking, Tōkyō exists as a metropolitan district on par with all of the other 46 prefectures in Japan. Although the majority of prefectures are listed as 県 (ken), there are four outliers. Hokkaidō, the prefecture, is listed as a 道 (dō), Ōsaka and Kyōto are listed as 府(fu), and Tōkyō is a 都 (to). I won’t bore you with the complex historical reasons for the four different names for prefectures, but I can say that the Tōkyō Metropolitan District is pretty unique as prefectures go.
What we think of as the city of Tōkyō comprises twenty-three wards, called 区 (ku). I’ve always viewed the wards as akin to the boroughs of New York City or the arrondissements of Paris. Several cities in Japan have wards as well but Tōkyō wards are now calling themselves cities. They’re still 区, but it can be confusing if you think you are in the city of Tōkyō and you see signs for Shinjuku City or Taitō City.
Those twenty-three wards/cities are only part of the whole of Tōkyō, however. To the east of the wards are twenty-six cities, 市 (shi), three towns, 町 (machi), and one village, 村 (mura). The further east you go, the more rural Tōkyō becomes. You can even go mountain-climbing (or, like me, ride the ropeway up) on the eastern edge of the prefecture.
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