Young Blonde Girl Reveals On The Hill Above The Village

It is a local public body along with prefecture (県 ken, or other equivalents), city (市 shi), and town (町 chō, sometimes machi). Geographically, a village's extent is contained within a prefecture.
It is larger than an actual settlement, being in actuality a subdivision of a rural district (郡 gun), which are subdivided into towns and villages with no overlap and no uncovered area.
As a result of mergers, the number of villages in Japan is decreasing.