The special wards (特別区 tokubetsu-ku) are 23 municipalities that together make up the core and the most populous part of Tokyo, Japan. Together, they occupy the land that was the city of Tokyo before it was abolished in 1943. The special wards’ structure was established under the Japanese Local Autonomy Law and is unique to Tokyo.
In Japanese, they are commonly known as the “twenty-three wards” (23区 nijūsan-ku). The wards generally call themselves “cities” instead of wards in English, even though the Japanese designation of tokubetsuku is unchanged. Nerima refers to itself as a “special city,” but this is not the same concept as the special cities of Japan (tokureishi).
