alt Hacker NewsThis made it to the HN front page 4 days ago, under its (terrible) previous name "The secrets of the Shinkansen":
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762060
And the top comment was mine, pointing out a bunch of factual mistakes and misleading claims:
the "city merging" thing also happens in the US! particularly with school districts. this is why many gigantor middle/high schools exist; they serve HUGE coverage areas with many cities that are too small/rural to have their own school districts.