Dōshūsei (道州制) is a proposal to organize Japan into one circuit (dō) of Hokkaido and several new states (shū) that are each a combination of several prefectures. The states and circuit are proposed to have greater regional autonomy, similar to the United Kingdom. It was proposed^[when?] by the Junichiro Koizumi administration, but has yet to materialize.

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Most of the political parties in 2012 supported this reform.^{[citation needed][1]}

An early proposal to replace the prefectures with states (-shū) and transform Japan into a federal state was Ueki Emori's 1881 draft constitution (ja:東洋大日本国国憲按, Tōyō Dai-Nihon-koku kokken-an), one of the more well-known and radical manifestations of the many so-called "private" (i.e. not government-sponsored) constitutional drafts that sprang from the Freedom and People's Rights Movement in the 1880s.^[2]

• Osaka Metropolis Plan
• Chukyo Metropolis proposal
• Autonomous communities of Spain, similar grouping of Spanish provinces