What is the difference between「市長」 and 「町長」?


So far, I have found these results:

  * 市長{しちょう}: mayor

  * 町長{ちょうちょう}: town headman; town mayor​

I would appreciate if someone could explain a more accurate difference, like
everyday usage or any example in its context.




Those are totally different and, therefore, are **_never_** interchangeable.
What the head of a municipality is called solely depends on what that
municipality itself is **_officially_** called.

According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%82%E7%94%BA%E6%9D%91), there
are (as of 2016) 791 市, 744 町 and 183 村 in Japan.

If a municipality is called a 「市{し}」, its head is called 「市長{しちょう}」. Likewise,
「町長{ちょうちょう}」 for a 「町{ちょう}」 and 「村長{そんちょう}」 for a 「村{むら}」.

Part of your confusion, I feel, may come from the linguistic fact that the
word "town" is used quite loosely in English and so is the word 「町{まち}／街{まち}」
in Japanese. Informally at least, those are often used to refer to an official
"city".




Those are totally different and, therefore, are **_never_** interchangeable.
What the head of a municipality is called solely depends on what that
municipality itself is **_officially_** called.

According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%82%E7%94%BA%E6%9D%91), there
are (as of 2016) 791 市, 744 町 and 183 村 in Japan.

If a municipality is called a 「市{し}」, its head is called 「市長{しちょう}」. Likewise,
「町長{ちょうちょう}」 for a 「町{ちょう}」 and 「村長{そんちょう}」 for a 「村{むら}」.

Part of your confusion, I feel, may come from the linguistic fact that the
word "town" is used quite loosely in English and so is the word 「町{まち}／街{まち}」
in Japanese. Informally at least, those are often used to refer to an official
"city".

