Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan/Districts and municipalities task force/guideline

The introductory section should introduce the article about the municipality, serving as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, summarizing the most important points, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable.

This section should follow the guidelines specified under WP:LEAD. Additionally, a couple of items should be included in the lead section for municipality articles, including:


 * Name of municipality and location in the prefecture
 * City/Town/Village proper population (official census figures should always be used when available, and other reliable estimates may be included as a supplement to official census figures when appropriate)
 * Metro population (official census figures should always be used when available, and other reliable estimates may be included as a supplement to official census figures when appropriate)
 * Brief note about historical roots/founding
 * Nicknames, if notable
 * Primary industries supporting its economy (e.g. service, manufacturing, tourism, etc ...)
 * Notable unique characteristics and characteristics commonly associated with it

Aspects of the metropolitan area other than population should be mostly avoided here and relegated to the proper metro area articles.

Names of the municipality should be given in English and Japanese (kanji and rōmaji) using the Nihongo template for the initial instance and using the English name thereafter. Pronunciation of the name in IPA per Help:IPA/English can be included in the lead if thought helpful.

The "red dot" maps for cities (found in the infobox) are being produced by a number of Wikipedians.

History
This section provides a narrative of the settlement's history. Topics that can be covered include, but are not limited to:
 * the origin of the name; etymology if appropriate
 * original inhabitants
 * original settlements
 * occupying powers/transitions of power
 * population spikes
 * recessions
 * reasons for settlement/growth
 * dominant activities
 * events that shaped the community

Most libraries will have books on local history. Be wary of loose interpretations, especially when using internet or promotional sources.

Note: History sections can easily become very long with more detail than appropriate for a general overview. While there is no strict rule on how long a section may be, as a general rule of thumb, more than 10 paragraphs or the use of subsection headings might indicate that it should be accompanied by a History of _ main article (using the main template). Only describe the minimum of what is required to understand where the community has come from and let the History of _ article give the details.

Second-level headings are to be avoided since they tend to encourage excessive detail and length and can disrupt cohesion.

Geography
This section provides a description of the physical geography. Topics that can be covered include, but are not limited to:
 * the settlement's context in the region
 * topography, natural features, landscape
 * cityscape and skyline
 * wildlife and vegetation
 * neighborhoods
 * infrastructure

The purpose is to describe the settlement as a geographic entity and space. Describe how the settlement exists in the larger region (for example, port on a river, harbor on a sea, agricultural community in the prairies, village in the mountains, suburb of city). The settlement as a geographic space is illustrated best with a map but can be explained by detailing the layout of the transportation infrastructure, neighborhoods, types of residential areas in relation to commercial or industrial spaces, etc.

All municipalities should have geographic coordinates. Districts and historical governments (Provinces of Japan, etc.) should not have coordinates. If a coordinate (latitude and longitude) is included in the infobox, remove any existing article coordinate from this section. There should be only one coordinate relating to the article present. (Other coordinates for points related to the topic are acceptable, such as historic locations of a moved settlement, relocated features, etc.) In the past, standard practice was to include several coordinate instances:  one in the infobox, one in Geography (often repeated in several notations), and once in the external links section using a Geolink or Mapit template. Such replication is confusing, uselessly redundant, and creates maintenance complexity.

Additional items to include or to note:
 * Include region:JP_type:city.
 * The type argument doesn't distinguish between city, town, and village; they should all use city.
 * When used within Infobox City Japan template, use.
 * Coordinates should be centered on the main government office (市役所, 町役場, or 村役場) of the municipality, rather than on the geographic center. This is due not only to the difficulty in uniquely determining the geographical center, but also because government offices tend to be located in the most densely populated (and therefore most interesting and notable) area of a municipality.
 * Coordinates should be specified only to an appropriate precision. Per WP:GEO, the most generally appropriate level of precision for areas the size of cities and towns is to round to the closest minute. For example, the Yamaguchi City Hall is located at 34.17861°N, 131.47361°W, but for the purposes of the article this should be rounded to 34.18333°N, 131.46667°W.

A coordinate formatted by or  links to all known map resources, so no additional map resource links should be included in the article.

Climate
This section provides general climatic conditions that have been recorded in the community. The purpose is to describe what weather should be expected and why. Topics include average, high, and low temperatures, precipitation (rain, snow, or both), wind, etc. Numbers can sometimes be best displayed and understood using a table.

Demographics
This section provides a demographic profile of the community, and usually relies on census data. Suggested topics:
 * Do NOT include population projections past present time per WP:CRYSTAL.
 * The Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication should be the primary source of demographic data. If census estimates or other reliable sources of demographic data are included, the additional data should supplement – not replace – the most recent available data from the decennial census.
 * Do NOT be overly precise in generating numbers or percentages. Follow WP:MOSNUM and WP:NOT when presenting percentages with decimal places.
 * Historical population levels
 * Demographic shifts
 * Average ages
 * Ethnicities
 * Religion
 * Household size

Comparison with the larger region or prefecture is useful.

Large quantities of numbers are best shown in graph or table form. It is important here to strike a balance between listing raw data and describing what it means. For some municipalities one demographic aspect, such as religion or ethnicities, can be important enough to dedicate an entire paragraph to explaining its meaning and implications for the municipality. To add balance to articles that can seem overly positive, a discussion of crime and homelessness can be added here.

The automated demographic information (i.e. "As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were") should be removed as more location-specific information is added in dynamic prose.

Economy
Presumably 95% of the people in the municipality work for a living, what do they do? What industries/sectors can support so many people? Who are the biggest employers? How did the economy take form and change over time?

It is important to maintain a professional and neutral discussion here: avoid spam. Though often unintentional promotional language and formatting slips in, be conscious of words and phrases here and use footnotes appropriately (not as an excuse for an external link). If a particular company has been crucial to the economy then discuss it but avoid listing company names for no other reason than just mentioning them.

Arts and culture
This section should include a description of the cultural aspects of the municipality, such as points of interest, museums, libraries, mentions of the city in the popular entertainment, etc. Try to minimize the use of peacock terms in this section.

This is arguably the most tempting section for OR and unsourced material. Do not do it! Local festivals, food, accents, etc ... are easy to find sources for. You might consider dividing this up into several subsections, like so:

Annual cultural events
Yearly events that occur in the municipality (fairs, art shows, festivals, etc.)

Museums and other points of interest
Talk about some of the major points of interest.

Sports
Are there any major league or other professional sports teams in the municipality? What about other sports that people might participate in (skiing, swimming, golf, tennis).

Parks and recreation
Are there any major parks in the municipality? What do people do for fun?

Since this section is somewhat related to sports, it would be advisable to place it immediately after the sports section. In smaller municipalities and towns with no major league professional sports, it might actually work better to combine this section with sports, using a suggested section title of 'Sports and recreation'.

Government
This section should include a description of the local municipality government, such as the mayor's office, city/town/village council or legislature, city manager (if applicable), and how these entities interact. For larger cities, you might include information on the local government politics as well.

Secondly, a brief paragraph about finance: spending for a recent year, proposed spending, or both, with footnotes to the full reports. The method of taxation: sales tax/real estate/personal property. The total number of government employees could be listed.

Education
Provide information on notable public and private schools in the municipality, as well as any colleges and universities that might be present. You might also include some information on the school board, as well as how many students and teachers are in the system. Are there any top-rated schools in the city? What about top-rated teachers (teacher of the year)? Be sure to include references for top-rated schools/teachers.

Do not generally list all the schools in a municipality unless this is a very short list.

Media
What is the major daily newspaper in town? Are there any alternative weekly publications? Television and radio stations? You might also talk about the city's media market and audience demographics here. If any major motion pictures, television shows, or syndicated radio broadcasts were filmed/recorded or originated in the municipality, this would probably be a good place to put that information.

It is very easy to make this article a list of radio and TV stations, movies, TV shows, etc. This should be avoided, instead constructing the information as prose.

Transportation
Include:
 * 1) Major highways, street layout (if notable)
 * 2) Mass transit (if applicable)
 * 3) Intercity transit including train stations and lines, buses, major airports
 * 4) Other: are bicycling or walking significant transportation modes?

Make sure if a future transit system is planned to include all present infrastructure first, placing future proposals and construction afterward.

Utilities
Include information on major electric and water utilities serving the municipality.

Health care
Include information on hospitals and clinics in the municipality. Some general information about the overall health of the population might be useful as well.

Notable people
Provide information, preferably in prose form, of any famous or notable individuals that were born, or lived for a significant amount of time, in the municipality. A bulleted list noting the connection the person has with the city as indicated in Manual of Style (embedded lists) may be used if appropriate. Simple lists of names add little of value and may be subject to abuse. More developed articles, especially those which have gone through WP:GA and WP:FA, tend to have this section written out as prose. The talkpage may be used in the early stages of an article's development to simply list people who are connected with a municipality. If the section grows then it may be split out per WP:Summary style into a stand alone article or list (such as List of people from Foo) which can be linked to via the main template placed at the top of the section.

Relevant guidelines are: WP:EMBED, WP:NLIST and WP:Source list, and should be consulted for up to date advice.

Topics specific to municipality
Additional subject headings might be added depending on the municipality.

It is also common for many early articles to contain trivia sections, such as generic listings of information, usually near the end of the article. This is ok in the early stages, as it enables many users to quickly add information to the article without worrying about where to place it. But keep in mind that trivia sections are discouraged in articles, and should be removed (but do not delete the information; rather, transfer it to more relevant sections, and turn it into appropriate prose there) prior to nominating the article for good article or featured article status.

Sister cities
Sister city relationships may be listed in alphabetical order. A good reference for sister cities is the Sister Cities International website.

A flagicon template can be used to provide a small national flag icon next to the listing of each city. An example of how to list cities using this template is below:


 * 🇸🇱 Bo (Sierra Leone)
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico City (Mexico)
 * 🇨🇦 Ottawa (Canada)
 * 🇮🇹 Pedavena, Veneto  (Italy, If a province or state is to be included)
 * 🇯🇲 Port Antonio (Jamaica)
 * 🇺🇸 Washington, D.C. (United States)

References / Notes
List all sources used in building the article in this section. Instructions for doing this are at Citing sources and Verifiability. You can include both sections if there are specific notes for clarification which are not references (see WP:CITE for details).

Some examples can be found in the following featured articles:


 * Minneapolis
 * Tumbler Ridge
 * Bangalore

Footers
Navigational templates (e.g., Geographic location), category links, stub templates, or interlanguage links may follow the last appendix section.

Photos
Please examine the article after adding photos to ensure they don't cause problems with the layout of the article.

Carefully consider the location of photos within the article to prevent large amounts of whitespace in the final layout of the article. If photos cause layout issues, then move the photo up/down, left/right or re-size/remove to avoid these types of problems.

Photos around tables (i.e. temperature) and floating templates (i.e. infobox, census) are common locations for layout problems within wiki articles.

If possible, check the article on various display resolution to verify if there are any layout problems, including 4:3 ratio displays and wide screen 16:9 / 16:10. Narrower width screens will layout differently than wider screens.