Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)

Taiwan was under Japanese rule after the First Sino-Japanese War, as per the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895. There were still several changes until the Japanese political system was adopted in 1920.

Introduction

Administrative divisions of Taiwan by types and times. Like the administrative divisions in mainland Japan, most of them are translated to "prefectures" in English.

Early years Chō (廳) Shū (州) and Chō (廳) 3 Ken, 1 Chō (1895) 1 Ken, 2 Minseishibu, 1 Chō (1895–1896) 3 Ken, 1 Chō (1896–1897) 6 Ken, 3 Chō (1897–1898) 3 Ken, 3 Chō (1898–1901) 3 Ken, 4 Chō (1901) 20 Chō (1901–1909) 12 Chō (1909–1920) 5 Shū, 2 Chō (1920–1926) 5 Shū, 3 Chō (1926–1945)

Types of the divisions Name Kanji Kana Ken 縣 けん Shū 州 しゅう Chō 廳 ちょう Minseishibu 民政支部 みんせいしぶ

Early years (1895–1901)

The political divisions changed frequently between 1895 and 1901.

Date	May. 1895 – Aug. 1895				Aug. 1895 – Mar. 1896				Mar. 1896 – Jun. 1897
Names	Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん		Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん		Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん
	Taiwan Ken	臺灣縣	たいわんけん		Taiwan Minseishibu	臺灣民政支部	たいわんみんせいしぶ		Taichū Ken	臺中縣	たいちゅうけん
	Tainan Ken	臺南縣	たいなんけん		Tainan Minseishibu	臺南民政支部	たいなんみんせいしぶ		Tainan Ken	臺南縣	たいなんけん
	Hōkotō Chō	澎湖島廳	ほうことうちょう		Hōkotō Chō	澎湖島廳	ほうことうちょう		Hōkotō Chō	澎湖島廳	ほうことうちょう
Div. No.	3 Ken, 1 Chō				1 Ken, 2 Minseishibu, 1 Chō				3 Ken, 1 Chō

Date	Jun. 1897 – Jun. 1898				Jun. 1898 – Apr. 1901				May. 1901 – Nov. 1901
Names	Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん		Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん		Taihoku Ken	臺北縣	たいほくけん
	Shinchiku Ken	新竹縣	しんちくけん
	Taichū Ken	臺中縣	たいちゅうけん		Taichū Ken	臺中縣	たいちゅうけん		Taichū Ken	臺中縣	たいちゅうけん
	Kagi Ken	嘉義縣	かぎけん
	Tainan Ken	臺南縣	たいなんけん		Tainan Ken	臺南縣	たいなんけん		Tainan Ken	臺南縣	たいなんけん
	Hōzan Ken	鳳山縣	ほうざんけん						Kōshun Chō	恆春廳	こうしゅんちょう
	Giran Chō	宜蘭廳	ぎらんちょう		Giran Chō	宜蘭廳	ぎらんちょう		Giran Chō	宜蘭廳	ぎらんちょう
	Taitō Chō	臺東廳	たいとうちょう		Taitō Chō	臺東廳	たいとうちょう		Taitō Chō	臺東廳	たいとうちょう
	Hōko Chō	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう		Hōko Chō	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう		Hōko Chō	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう
Div. No.	6 Ken, 3 Chō				3 Ken, 3 Chō				3 Ken, 4 Chō

Chō (1901–1920)

The former system was abolished November 11, 1901, and twenty local administrative offices (Chō) were established.^[1] Usage of Ken divisions was discontinued.

Structural hierarchy

Administrative divisions of Taiwan in 1901.^[2]

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Prefecture 廳 chō	Subprefecture 支廳 shichō	District 區 ku	Town 街 gai
			Village 庄 jō

Prefectures

Nov. 1901 – Oct. 1909				Oct. 1909 – Aug. 1920
Taihoku Chō	臺北廳	たいほくちょう		Taihoku Chō	臺北廳	たいほくちょう
Kīrun Chō	基隆廳	きいるんちょう
Shinkō Chō	深坑廳	しんこうちょう
				Giran Chō	宜蘭廳	ぎらんちょう
Giran Chō	宜蘭廳	ぎらんちょう
Tōshien Chō	桃仔園廳	とうしえんちょう		Tōen Chō	桃園廳	とうえんちょう
Shinchiku Chō	新竹廳	しんちくちょう		Shinchiku Chō	新竹廳	しんちくちょう
Byōritsu Chō	苗栗廳	びょうりつちょう
				Taichū Chō	臺中廳	たいちゅうちょう
Taichū Chō	臺中廳	たいちゅうちょう
Shōka Chō	彰化廳	しょうかちょう
Nantō Chō	南投廳	なんとうちょう		Nantō Chō	南投廳	なんとうちょう
Toroku Chō	斗六廳	とろくちょう
				Kagi Chō	嘉義廳	かぎちょう
Kagi Chō	嘉義廳	かぎちょう
Ensuikō Chō	鹽水港廳	えんすいこうちょう
				Tainan Chō	臺南廳	たいなんちょう
Tainan Chō	臺南廳	たいなんちょう
Hōzan Chō	鳳山廳	ほうざんちょう
Banshoryō Chō	蕃薯寮廳	ばんしょりょうちょう		Akugu Chō	阿緱廳	おくぐちょう
Akō Chō	阿猴廳	おくぐちょう
Kōshun Chō	恆春廳	こうしゅんちょう
Taitō Chō	臺東廳	たいとうちょう		Taitō Chō	臺東廳	たいとうちょう
				Karenkō Chō	花蓮港廳	かれんこうちょう
Hōko Chō	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう		Hōko Chō	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう
20 Chō				12 Chō

• Shinkō, Byōritsu, Toroku, Ensuikō were split and merge with the two Chō in the right.

Population

Population of Formosa according to census taken 31 December 1904, arranged by district.^[3]

Shū and Chō (1920–1945)

Political division of Taiwan

Under a "Dōka policy" (同化) in which the Japanese considered the Taiwanese to be separate but equal, the political divisions in Taiwan became similar to the system used in mainland Japan in 1920.

Structural hierarchy

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Prefecture 州 shū (5) 廳 chō (3)	City 市 shi (11)		大字 ōaza	小字 koaza
	District 郡 gun (51) or Subprefecture 支廳 shichō (2)	Town 街 gai (67)
		Village 庄 jō (264)
		Aboriginal Area 蕃地 banchi

Prefectures

Name	Kanji	Kana	No. of Subdivisions			Wade–Giles
			City	District	Subp.
Taihoku Prefecture	臺北州	たいほくしゅう	3	9		Taipei
Shinchiku Prefecture	新竹州	しんちくしゅう	1	8		Hsinchu
Taichū Prefecture	臺中州	たいちゅうしゅう	2	11		Taichung
Tainan Prefecture	臺南州	たいなんしゅう	2	10		Tainan
Takao Prefecture	高雄州	たかおしゅう	2	7		Kaohsiung
Karenkō Prefecture	花蓮港廳	かれんこうちょう	1	3		Hualien Port
Taitō Prefecture	臺東廳	たいとうちょう		3		Taitung
Hōko Prefecture	澎湖廳	ほうこちょう			2	Penghu

• Hōko Prefecture was divided from Takao Prefecture in 1926

Cities

There were 11 cities in Taiwan in 1945. Most of them are still the most populous municipalities in the country today. The ōaza (大字) in the city center may named chō (町).

Prefecture	Name	Kanji	Kana	Wade–Giles		Prefecture	Name	Kanji	Kana	Wade–Giles
Taihoku	Taihoku City	臺北市	たいほくし	Taipei		Tainan	Tainan City	臺南市	たいなんし	Tainan
	Kīrun City	基隆市	きいるんし	Keelung			Kagi City	嘉義市	かぎし	Chiayi
	Giran City	宜蘭市	ぎらんし	Yilan		Takao	Takao City	高雄市	たかおし	Kaohsiung
Shinchiku	Shinchiku City	新竹市	しんちくし	Hsinchu			Heitō City	屏東市	へいとうし	Pingtung
Taichū	Taichū City	臺中市	たいちゅうし	Taichung		Karenkō	Karenkō City	花蓮港市	かれんこうし	Hualien
	Shōka City	彰化市	しょうかし	Changhua

Population

The 1941 (Shōwa 16) census of Taiwan was 6,249,468. 93.33% of the population were Taiwanese which consisted of both Han Chinese and "civilized" Taiwanese aborigines. Tainan had the largest population followed by Taichū and Taihoku. The largest concentration of ethnic Japanese were in Taihoku followed by Takao and Tainan.

Area	Japanese	Taiwanese	Korean	Other	Total
Taihoku Prefecture	153,928	1,053,372	1,051	25,531	1,233,882
Shinchiku Prefecture	20,693	815,274	150	1,894	838,011
Taichū Prefecture	46,371	1,329,620	333	3,863	1,380,187
Tainan Prefecture	53,446	1,489,621	253	7,375	1,550,695
Takao Prefecture	59,633	863,313	598	6,839	930,383
Karenkō Prefecture	20,914	130,720	119	2,032	153,785
Taitō Prefecture	7,078	85,068	35	957	93,138
Hōko Prefecture	3,619	65,694		74	69,387
Total	365,682	5,832,682	2,539	48,565	6,249,468
Percentage	5.85%	93.33%	0.04%	0.78%	100%

Changes in 1945

When the Republic of China began to rule Taiwan in 1945, the government simply changed the names of the divisions and gave names to the Aboriginal areas.

Before		After
Level 1	Prefecture (州 shū and 廳chō)	County (縣 xiàn)	Level 1
Level 2	City (市 shi)	Provincial city (省轄市 shěngxiáshì)
		County-controlled city (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì)	Level 2
	District (郡 gun)	County-controlled district (縣轄區 xiànxiáqū)
	Subprefecture (支廳 shichō)
Level 3	Town (街 gai)	Urban Township (鎮 zhèn)	Level 3
	Village (庄 jō)	Rural Township (鄉 xiāng)
	Aboriginal Area (蕃地 banchi)	Aboriginal Rural Township (山地鄉 shāndìxiāng)

• Most of the cities in Taiwan became provincial cities, but Yilan (宜蘭市 Giran) and Hualien (花蓮市 Karen) became the first two county-controlled cities in the ROC.
• The more basic 大字 ōaza or 小字 koaza are merged to the districts in provincial cities, and/or reformed to villages (村 cūn or 里 lǐ).

See also

• Prefectures of Japan
• Administrative divisions of the Republic of China
• List of Governor-General of Taiwan

References

1. Davidson (1903), pp. 597-8: "In place of the former system, which divided the island into 3 prefectures and 3 prefectures of second class, and which was abolished November 11th, 1901, local administrative offices known as "Cho" have been established at the following points: Taihoku, Kelung, Giran (Gilan), Shinko (Chim-hua), Toshien (Tao-hong), Shinchiku (Teck-cham), Bioritsu (Maoli), Taichu, Shoka (Chang-wha), Nanto (Nam-tau), Toroku (Tau-lak), Kagi, Yensuiko (Kiam-tsui kang), Tainan, Banshorio (Han-chu-liao), Hozan (Fang-shan), Ako (A-kau), Koshun (Heng-chun), Taito (Tai-tong), and Boko (Pang-hoo). The Administrative or District Offices (Cho) are in charge of chiefs of Sonin rank, who are assisted by clerks, police inspectors, assistant experts, interpreters, and assistant police, all of Hannin rank. These officers of Hannin rank number 1230 for the whole island. The administration of Formosa, under the direction and superintendence of the Governor General, is entrusted to these district offices."
2. Davidson (1903), map.
3. Takekoshi (1907), p. 199.

Bibliography

• Davidson, James W. (1903). "Chapter XXXI: Formosa of To-day". The Island of Formosa, Past and Present : history, people, resources, and commercial prospects : tea, camphor, sugar, gold, coal, sulphur, economical plants, and other productions. London and New York: Macmillan. OCLC 1887893. OL 6931635M.
• Takekoshi, Yosaburō (1907). "Chapter XIII: Population and future development of the island resources". Japanese rule in Formosa. London, New York, Bombay and Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and co. OCLC 753129. OL 6986981M.