became the first designated city in Japan to establish a partnership system. On 14 February 2018, the Fukuoka city office announced plans to start issuing partnership certificates to same-sex and different-sex couples from 2 April 2018. Osaka followed suit on 9 July 2018, and Chiba on 29 January 2019. Nakano began offering partnership certificates on 20 August 2018. Couples can receive notarized documentation recognizing a delegation agreement for medical treatment and nursing care, property management and other areas in which married couples share responsibility. The number of cities which have established a partnership registry has steadily increased in the years since. 21 cities established a same-sex partnership system in 2019, notably Kitakyushu, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Sakai, Yokohama, and Yokosuka. 36 more cities followed suit in 2020, including Hamamatsu, Kawasaki, Kyoto, Minato, Nara, Niigata, Okayama, Sagamihara, Saitama, and Takamatsu. 69 more cities followed in 2021, notably Adachi, Chigasaki, Fujisawa, Funabashi, Hiroshima, Kanazawa, Kōchi, Koshigaya, Nishinomiya, and Toyota. 104 cities established a partnership system in 2022, including Akita, Kagoshima, Nagano, and Shizuoka. Prefectural partnership systems In January 2019, the Government of Ibaraki Prefecture announced it was considering introducing a partnership system for same-sex couples in April 2019. In March 2019, Governor Kazuhiko Ōigawa expressed his personal support for the introduction of such a scheme. The Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly began examing legislation to this effect in June 2019. The prefecture has offered partnership certificates since July 1, 2019, which made it the first prefecture to do so. Eight days later, Mito, the prefectural capital, announced that couples who are in the possession of the prefecture's certificates would be eligible to move into the municipality's public housing facilities, starting in August 2019. On 15 January 2020, Osaka Prefecture announced it would start a partnership system on January 22. Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said in a statement that "we should aim for a society where one can live as themselves". The first couple to receive a certificate were Shuji Yamada and Shigeo Hiruda on 31 January. The certificate allows couples to apply to move into prefectural housing and consent to surgery, among other limited benefits. Five cities in Osaka had already established such a system before it was extended to the entire prefecture. Gunma Prefecture announced on 5 November 2020 that it would introduce a partnership system by the end of the year. The system would provide same-sex couples with some limited recognition, including the right