Editing Chiba Prefecture (section)

===Local government===
As of 2014, Chiba is divided into 54 contiguous [[Municipalities of Japan|municipalities]] (see list above): 37 cities, 16 towns and one village,<ref>Chiba Prefecture, [https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kensei/kennogoannnai/chiiki/shichouson/index.html Municipalities] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929195815/https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kensei/kennogoannnai/chiiki/shichouson/index.html |date=2015-09-29 }}: [https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kouhou/ichiran.html List], [https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kouhou/map.html Map]</ref> as in all of postwar Japan each with a directly elected mayor and assembly. The most populous and Chiba's only [[Designated city|designated major city]] is the capital [[Chiba City]]. Two cities, Funabashi and Kashiwa, are [[Core cities of Japan|core cities]]. After late 20th century mergers, much of the rest of the prefecture is also organized in independent [[Cities of Japan|cities]]: Of the (today purely geographical) [[Counties of Japan|counties]], only six remain, four of which have only one or two remaining [[Towns of Japan|towns]] or [[Villages of Japan|villages]]. After the reorganization of county and municipal governments in all prefectures in 1889/1890, there had initially been 12 counties and no city in Chiba;<ref>[http://www.tt.rim.or.jp/~ishato/tiri/gun/map/1900/12tiba.htm Chiba's counties and cities in 1900] {{in lang|ja}}</ref> Chiba town in Chiba county became the first municipality in Chiba to be elevated to city status in 1921.