Special cities of Japan


A special city of Japan is a city with a population of at least 200,000, and is delegated functions normally carried out by prefectural governments. Those functions are a subset of the ones delegated to a core city.
This category was established by the Local Autonomy Law, article 252 clause 26. They are designated by the Cabinet after a request by the city council and the prefectural assembly.
Because the level of autonomy delegated to special cities is similar to that for core cities, after consultation with local governments the category of special cities was abolished in the revision of the Local Autonomy Act enacted on April 1, 2015, and cities with a population of at least 200,000 may now apply to be directly promoted to core city status. Special cities which have not been promoted may still retain autonomy, and are called. As a special case, within five years of the abolishment of the category of special cities, i.e. before April 1, 2020, special cities with a population under 200,000 may also apply to be promoted to core city status.
The special cities are not the same as the special wards of Tokyo. They are also different from special cities that were legally established in the Local Autonomy Law between 1947 and 1956, but never implemented. They would have been prefecture-independent cities. They were the legal successors to the 1922 "six major cities" and precursors to the 1956 designated major cities which have expanded autonomy, but not full independence from prefectures.

List of special cities

As of 1 April 2019, 27 cities have been designated special cities:
NameJapanesePopulation Date of designationRegionPrefecture
Atsugi厚木市224,1812002-04-01KantōKanagawa
Hiratsuka平塚市260,0612001-04-01KantōKanagawa
Ibaraki茨木市276,4742001-04-01KansaiOsaka
Isesaki伊勢崎市207,2532007-04-01KantōGunma
Jōetsu上越市202,3662007-04-01ChūbuNiigata
Kakogawa加古川市268,1752002-04-01KansaiHyōgo
Kasugai春日井市306,5732002-04-01ChūbuAichi
Kasukabe春日部市236,9762008-04-01KantōSaitama
Kumagaya熊谷市201,8142009-04-01KantōSaitama
Nagaoka長岡市281,1012007-04-01ChūbuNiigata
Numazu沼津市199,8832000-04-01ChūbuShizuoka
Ōta太田市217,1072007-04-01KantōGunma
Saga佐賀市237,5012014-04-01KyushuSaga
Sōka草加市244,8512004-04-01KantōSaitama
Takarazuka宝塚市227,6172003-04-01KansaiHyōgo
Yamato大和市230,3572000-04-01KantōKanagawa