Districts of Japan
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Template:Japan divisions levels The district (郡; gun) was most recently used as an administrative unit in Japan between 1878 and 1921 and is roughly equivalent to the county of the United States. It was ranked at the level below prefecture and above city, town or village. The district was initially called kōri and has ancient roots in Japan. Although the Nihon Shoki claims they were established dring the Taika Reforms, kōri was originally written 評. It wasn't until the Taihō Penal and Civil Code that kōri came to be written 郡. Under the Taihō Penal and Civil Code, the administrative unit of province (国; kuni) was above district, and the village (里; sato or 郷; sato) was below. The concept of 郡 has remained in some form throughout Japanese history and is still used in the Japanese addressing system to identify the location of towns or villages. Cities, unlike counties in the US, belong directly to prefectures.
Confusing cases in Hokkaido
Because district names had been unique in the province and nowadays prefecture boundaries are roughly aligned to province boundaries, most district names are unique in the prefecture. However, the Hokkaido Prefecture, consisting of eleven provinces, involves a few confusing cases.
There are three Kamikawa Districts and two Nakagawa Districts in the Hokkaido Prefecture.
- Kamikawa District (Ishikari), managed by the Kamikawa Subprefecture
- Kamikawa District (Teshio), managed by the Kamikawa Subprefecture
- Kamikawa District (Tokachi), managed by the Tokachi Subprefecture
- Nakagawa District (Teshio), managed by the Kamikawa Subprefecture
- Nakagawa District (Tokachi), managed by the Tokachi Subprefecture
Abuta District, Rumoi District, Sorachi District, and Yufutsu District are deceptively similar, but each of them is a single district allotted to two subprefectures.
- Abuta District, managed by Iburi subprefecture and Shiribeshi subprefecture
- Sorachi District, managed by Kamikawa subprefecture and Sorachi subprefecture
- Teshio District, managed by Rumoi subprefecture and Soya subprefecture
- Yufutsu District, managed by Iburi subprefecture and Kamikawa subprefecture
See also: Geography of Japanja:郡