Districts of Japan

In Japan, a district (郡, gun) is composed of one or more rural municipalities (towns or villages) within a prefecture. Districts have no governing function, and are only used for geographic or statistical purposes such as mailing addresses. Cities are not part of districts.

Historically, districts have at times functioned as an administrative unit. From 1878 to 1921 district governments were roughly equivalent to a county of the United States, ranking below prefecture and above town or village, on the same level as a city. District governments were entirely abolished by 1926.