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List of cities in Japan

Wikimedia list article

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ735757 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of cities in Japan sorted by prefecture and within prefecture by founding date. The list is also sortable by population, area, density and foundation date. Most large cities in Japan are cities designated by government ordinance. Some regionally important cities are designated as core cities. While the City of Tokyo ceased to exist on July 1, 1943, being replaced by the 23 special wards that make up the eastern part of the special metropolis prefecture (都, to) Tokyo, it has been included on this list concurrently with the special wards.

Cities

Dissolved cities

Notes

Source data

The area figures are according to Geographical Survey Institute of Japan as of 2007-10-01.

The source websites of each prefectures' populations are according to ja:Template:自治体人口/doc.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “List of cities in Japan” is wikimedia list article. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through List, cities and Japan, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1943, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, List, cities and Japan is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “wikimedia list article” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q735757. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1943 and 2007.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of cities in Japan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of cities in Japan primary sources, List of cities in Japan archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of cities in Japan”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of cities in Japan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.