The 23 special wards (特別区 tokubetsuku) comprise the inner city area of Tokyo, Japan. They vary greatly in size (from 10 to 60 km�) and in population (from 40,000 to 830,000), although they resemble sizable cities in both respects. Setagaya has the most people; neighboring Ōta, the most area.

Tokyo is not a city; it is a prefecture which stretches from remote mountain villages in the west to the Ogasawara Islands 1000 km to the south, and encompasses more than two dozen cities in addition to the 23 special wards. The name of one part of Tokyo (understood throughout Japan) is nijūsanku (２３区), simply meaning "23 wards". This refers specifically to inner Tokyo, distinguishing it from the entire prefecture of Tokyo.

The combined population of the 23 special wards is 8.28 million (2002 est.), about two-thirds of the population of Tokyo and a quarter of the population of the Greater Tokyo Area. The area has a population density of 13,333 per square kilometre (34,500 per sq. mile).

List of special wards

Name	Kanji	Population	Pop. Density (per km�)	Area (km�)
Adachi	足立区	621,848	11,688.87	53.20
Arakawa	荒川区	186,275	18,262.25	10.20
Bunkyō	文京区	181,065	16,009.28	11.31
Chiyoda	千代田区	37,988	3,263.57	11.64
Chūō	中央区	81,996	8,078.42	10.15
Edogawa	江戸川区	637,571	12,787.22	49.86
Itabashi	板橋区	525,969	16,349.67	32.17
Katsushika	葛飾区	426,403	12,238.89	34.84
Kita	北区	327,086	15,885.67	20.59
Kōtō	江東区	398,805	10,111.69	39.44
Meguro	目黒区	255,833	17,403.61	14.70
Minato	港区	167,098	8,215.24	20.34
Nakano	中野区	313,325	20,097.82	15.59
Nerima	練馬区	674,826	14,012.17	48.16
Ōta	大田区	661,157	11,119.36	59.46
Setagaya	世田谷区	829,624	14,284.16	58.08
Shibuya	渋谷区	201,524	13,337.13	15.11
Shinagawa	品川区	332,536	14,636.27	22.72
Shinjuku	新宿区	297,135	16,299.23	18.23
Suginami	杉並区	530,307	15,588.10	34.02
Sumida	墨田区	221,093	16,079.49	13.75
Toshima	豊島区	252,764	19,428.44	13.01
Taitō	台東区	162,685	16,139.38	10.08

Differences from other wards

Wards (区 ku) are found in many other Japanese cities. Before 1943, the wards of Tokyo City were no different from the wards of Osaka or Kyoto. In 1943, when the municipal and prefectural governments were merged into a single metropolitan government, the wards were placed under the direct control of the metropolis.

Since the 1970s, the special wards of Tokyo have exercised a considerably higher degree of autonomy than other wards, making them more like independent cities than districts of a city. Each special ward has its own elected mayor (区長 kuchō) and assembly (区議会 kugikai).

In some instances, the metropolitan government of Tokyo treats the special wards as if they still comprised a single city. Water, sewage, and fire services, for instance, are administered by Tokyo for the entire 23-ward area. To finance these measures, the metropolitan government levies some of the taxes that would normally be levied by city governments, and also makes transfer payments to wards that cannot finance their own local administration.

In 2000, the Diet of Japan designated the special wards as local public entities (地方公共団体 chihō-kōkyō-dantai), giving them a status analogous to cities. Since then, the special wards have officially called themselves "cities" in the English language. However, their Japanese language designation does not differentiate them from wards in other cities.

See also

• Local Autonomy Law
• Wards of Japan
• The Five Boroughs
• London borough

ja:特別区 minnan:Te̍k-pia̍t-khu zh:東京23區