Cities of Japan
Cities are ranked on the same level as towns (町, machi) and villages (村, mura), with the difference that they are not a component of districts (郡, gun).
On the other hand, the municipalities recently gained the city status purely as a result of increase of population without expansion of area are limited to those listed in List of former towns or villages gained city status alone in Japan.
Tokyo, Japan's capital, existed as a city until 1943, but is now legally classified as a special type of prefecture called a metropolis (都, to).
The -shi replaced the previous urban districts/"wards/cities" (-ku) that had existed as primary subdivisions of prefectures besides rural districts (-gun) since 1878.
