The whole of Japan proper is divided into forty-five prefectures. The
prefectures of Tokio, Kioto, and Osaka are called Fu, whilst all others
are called Ken. The difference is more a matter of sentiment than
anything else, for there is no difference whatever for any practical
purposes. The administrative systems of Hokkaido, Okinawa, and Formosa
each diverge from those of Japan proper to some extent, though they are
gradually being made similar to those of the main islands. I therefore
put those three Islands, Hokkaido, Okinawa, and Formosa, outside the
scope of the present paper for the sake of convenience. Each prefecture
is presided over by a governor appointed by the central Government. It
is partly an administrative district of the state and partly a communal
district having its communal administration supported by local taxes.
For this latter aspect each prefecture has a local assembly, members of
which are elected by direct votes of electors of the prefecture. Each
prefecture is divided into counties, and the counties (Kreis) into rural
and urban village communities (Gemeinde). Larger urban communities are
incorporated as cities and are made independent of counties. Counties
are prefectures on a small scale. Each of them is presided over by a
_Gun-cho_, whose office is very similar to that of a French sub-prefect.
But counties also have their communal sides like prefectures and have
representative assemblages. The communal side of counties, however, is
not very important, because communal affairs on a large scale are
discharged by prefectures, and ordinary communal affairs are mostly
discharged by village communities. Cities and village communities are
the real 'self-governments' of the people. Each of them has a
representative assemblage, and elects its own executive officials. The
composition of these officials differs in cities and village
communities; that in the cities is, of course, more complicated. Even
amongst the cities there is a great difference in the degree of
importance, because there are many cities which are extremely small,
inasmuch as a town having a population over twenty-five thousand could
as a rule be incorporated as a city. The existing ordinances for the
constitution of these local governments are very much like those of
Prussia--in fact, the ordinances for those of the cities and village
communities are in a great measure founded upon those of Prussia. The
chief points of difference are that, unlike Prussia, our prefectural
governments subordinate direct to the central Government, with no
intermediary which represents the latter and superintends the former,
and that, unlike Prussia, there is in Japan no 'Gutsbezirk' (signorial
community) side by side with ordinary communities.