Are you not familiar with the phrase todofuken? To be more accurate, spelling according to the rules of Japanese romaji transcription is as follows - todo:fuken (colon indicates a long vowel sound). This mysterious expression is none other than the name of the Japanese system of administrative-territorial division. And todo:fuken represents the level of prefectures which are major administrative units, so that is the highest level of administrative-territorial division. Lower level consists of counties – gun (pronounced like "goon” in English but shortly), counties of Hokkaido (shicho:) and special cities (tokurei shi) which "special” status is determined by particular ordinances of Japanese Government. Also, there is a municipal level, the administrative units of which have sufficient and broad autonomy: such units include prefecture centers, special cities, cities (shi), towns (cho: or machi), villages (son or mura), as well as urban areas (ku) and 23 special districts of Tokyo (tokubetsu ku).

Thus, the todo:fuken system is formed by 47 administrative units. The very name of this system tells us that Japan consists of one capital prefecture called to - Tokyo, one governorship do: - Hokkaido, two urban prefectures fu - Kyoto and Osaka, and forty three "ordinary” prefectures called ken.

Below is arrangement of prefectures in accordance with the standard ISO 3166-2:JP.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Japan_prefectures.png 

Let’s also note the second principle of prefectures classification – division by the historical regions of Japan, which themselves are not actual administrative units and, accordingly, do not have administrative bodies.

In both cases given classification division is specified from north to south.

During the Meiji period Japan reformed its feudal system of administrative-territorial division. In 1871 the country began implementing a new system, when feuds (han) had been abolished, and prefectures were established instead of them. This reform has gone down in Japanese history as haihan chiken. Initially, the number of prefectures was equal to the number of feuds, just over three hundred. Gradually their number was reduced to 72, and subsequently to 47 administrative units we know today. The Law on local autonomy had been enacted and that gave the prefectures a lot of powers in the local field.

If we take a closer look on the historical aspect of formation of the modern administrative division of Japan, we can see that in the Edo period the shogunate defined nine urban areas which were governed by central officials, and 302 municipal cities were governed by local city officials. In the Meiji period nine urban areas became counties fu, and municipal cities became prefectures ken. As a result of the 1871 reform there had appeared three urban prefectures fu in Japan. They were Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. The urban prefecture of Tokyo was renamed into the capital prefecture to in 1943.

As for Hokkaido – the situation here was historically different. Since old times the island was inhabited by the Ainu - northern warlike tribes who did not obey the shogun. Therefore, there had been created 14 counties shicho: for the purposes of development of the island and some kind of its colonization. These counties became some sort of centers for establishing imperial and shogun authority on Ezoshima (so the Japanese nicknamed the island that literally refers to the "Island of Ainu").

Now there are discussions in Japanese government on plans for further reforming the system of administrative-territorial division of the country. Some politicians, giving reasons that the processes of urbanization in Japan are gaining more and more lightning pace, propose a reform project aimed at merging prefectures into 10 big administrative conglomerates.