Town (Japan) - Definition and Overview

A town (町 chō) is a local administrative unit in Japan. It is a local public body along with prefecture (ken or other equivalents), city (shi), and village (mura). Geographically, a town's extent is contained within a prefecture.

Note that the same word (町 machi or chō) is also used in names of smaller region, usually a part of ward in a city.

See also: Municipality of Japan, Japanese addressing system.