Tokyo

**Tokyo** () is the capital and largest city of Japan. It is on the island of Honshu in the region of Kanto. Tokyo is the center of the Japanese government. The Imperial Palace is in Tokyo but it's not actually public for tourists to visit. Tokyo is the center of business, trade, and industry of Japan. The city is the center of the second largest metropolitan area in the world. It faces Tokyo Bay.

It became the capital city of Japan in the middle of 19th century, when its name changed from "Edo" to "Tokyo". Before then, Kyoto was the capital of Japan. The Emperor of Japan, or Tenno, lived in Kyoto. Edo was the place where the Tokugawa Shoguns lived. The city grew up under the control of the shoguns. Before then it was a small town on the sea. Edo means "the mouth of a river" in Japanese.

Tokyo was destroyed by fires started by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. It was also badly damaged by bombs during World War II. After Japan lost the war, the city was rebuilt.

### 1457-1869

Tokyo began as a small fishing village named Edo(江戸、えど). Edo was in the old Musashi Province.

The Edo clan built walls to protect the town in the late 12th century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base. He became shogun in 1603, and the town became the center of his military government. This marked the beginning of the Edo period. During this time, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world. More than one million people lived there by the 18th century.

Edo was not the capital of Japan. The emperor lived in the capital, Kyoto. However, since the shogun was more powerful than the emperor throughout Japanese history, Edo had more power. After about 263 years, the Meiji Restoration removed the shogun from power. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. The old Edo Castle became the Kokyo, the Imperial Palace.

### 1869-1943

The Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo were established. This was the capital city until 1943.

### 1943-present

In 1943, Tokyo City and the "associated municipalities of what was formerly  (1869-1943)" combined into one.

Central Tokyo is built around major railway stations. Suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level. There are some expressways.

Tokyo suffered two major catastrophes in the 20th century. The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake left 140,000 dead or missing. World War II was the other disaster for the city. The Bombing of Tokyo from 1944 through 1945 killed between 75,000 and 200,000 people and destroyed half the city. This was almost as much damage as the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Tokyo was completely rebuilt after the war. The 1964 Summer Olympics were a major world event. New high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60 started in the 1970s.

## Climate

Tokyo has a four-season humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: _Cfa_) with hot rainy summers and cool dry winters.

## Population

|By area<sup>1</sup>|||
| --- | --- | --- |
|Tokyo _Special wards_ Tama Area Islands|12.79 million _8.653 million_ 4.109 million 28,000||
|Young people (age 0-14) Working age (age 15-64) Retirement age (age 65+)|1.461 million (11.8%) 8.546 million (69.3%) 2.332 million (18.9%)||
|Day Night|14.978 million 12.416 million||
|International residents|364,653<sup>4</sup>||
|colspan="3" style="font-size:90%;"|{|||
|<sup>1</sup> Estimates as of October 1, 2007. ² as of January 1, 2007.|³ as of 2005 National Census. <sup>4</sup> as of January 1, 2006.|}|
As of October 2007 about 8.7 million were living in Tokyo's 23 special wards. The number of people in Tokyo increases to over 15 million during the day. About 2.5 million workers and students enter the city everyday. The three central wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato increase the most. As of 2005, the regular population in those three areas was only 326,000 at night, but there are 2.4 million in those areas during the day.

Tokyo has many international residents. As of 2005, the most common groups in Tokyo are Chinese (123,661), Koreans (106,697), and Filipinos (31,077). Americans (18,848), British (7,696), Brazilian (5,300) and French (3,000) are less common.

## Special wards

The 23 special wards of Tokyo are the same area that had been called Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, Tokyo City was merged with  to become a special government area. This made the wards different from other wards in Japan. Other city wards are part of a larger city government, but these are not.
Each ward is a municipality with its own mayor and assembly like the other cities of Japan. The special wards often use the word city in their official English name, e.g. Chiyoda City.

The wards have a unique administrative relationship with the prefectural government.  The Tokyo Metropolitan Government manages some public works such as water, sewer, and fire-fighting. To pay for these things, the prefecture collects the municipal taxes usually collected by a city.

The special wards of Tokyo are:

Three wards of Tokyo make up the central part of the city. They are Chiyoda, Chūō and Minato.

## Landmarks

Tokyo has many sight-seeing spots, but very few of them are old. There are very few buildings in Tokyo that are more than 50 years old. Popular places for visitors range from Tokyo Tower in the center of the city to Mount Takao out in the western countryside. Tokyo Skytree is a new tower and is the tallest in Japan. Traditional religious sights such as Meiji Shrine and Sensō-ji attract many tourists. The Imperial Palace can be seen in the middle of the city, but is not open to the public.

## Transportation

Tokyo is the cultural, business, and political center of the country. It is also the center of many transport systems. There are many air, rail, sea, and road links in and out of the city. Local subway and bus systems serve every part of the city.

Two commercial airports serve Tokyo. Haneda Airport is in the city limits next to Tokyo Bay. This airport is mostly for domestic travel. Most international flights to and from Tokyo go through Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture(千葉県).

Several Shinkansen **super-express railway **lines begin at Tokyo Station, including the Tōkaidō Shinkansen going west, and the Tōhoku Shinkansen going northeast. Tokyo Metro is the city's major subway system.

Tokyo has a busy international and domestic port, but more traffic goes through the nearby port of Yokohama. There are domestic ferries to the islands of Tokyo, but also to other parts of the country such as Hokkaido.

Many highways meet in Tokyo, including: the Chūō, Kan-Etsu, Tōhoku, and Tōmei Expressways. All highway distances in Japan start from zero at a marker at Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

## Related pages

- F.C. Tokyo
- Tokyo Metropolis
- Tokyo Verdy
- 2020 Summer Olympics

#### National Universities

- Hitotsubashi University
- Tokyo Medical and Dental University
- University of Tokyo

#### Private Universities

- Keio University
- Nihon University
- Tokyo Woman's Christian University
- Waseda University
    - Waseda Jitsugyo (Private school attached to Waseda Univ.)

## Other websites

- Tokyo Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Tokyo Shitamachi Bus

## Infobox (settlement)

- **official name**: Tokyo Metropolis
- **settlement type**: Prefectures of Japan, Metropolis
- **image caption**: Clockwise from top: Nishi-Shinjuku skyscrapers and Mount Fuji, Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo), Rainbow Bridge, National Diet Building, Tokyo Station in Marunouchi, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Skytree
- **image flag**: Flag of Tokyo Prefecture.svg
- **flag size**: 120px
- **flag link**: Symbols of Tokyo#Metropolitan crest flag
- **image blank emblem**: PrefSymbol-Tokyo.svg
- **blank emblem type**: Insignias of Tokyo, Symbol
- **blank emblem size**: 80px
- **image map**: Tokyo in Japan.svg
- **map caption**: Location within Japan
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision name**: Japan
- **subdivision type1**: List of regions of Japan, Region
- **subdivision name1**: Kantō region, Kantō
- **subdivision type2**: List of islands of Japan, Island
- **subdivision name2**: Honshu
- **seat type**: List of capitals in Japan, Capital
- **seat**: Special wards of Tokyo, Tokyo
- **parts type**: Divisions
- **parts**: Special wards of Tokyo, 23 special wards, #Cities, 26 cities, #Nishi-Tama District, 1 district, and Subprefectures of Japan, 4 subprefectures
- **governing body**: Tokyo Metropolitan Government
- **leader title**: List of prefectural governors in Japan, Governor
- **leader name**: Yuriko Koike (Tomin First no Kai, TF)
- **leader title1**: House of Representatives (Japan), Representatives
- **leader name1**: Tokyo's Diet electoral districts#House of Representatives, 42
- **leader title2**: House of Councillors (Japan), Councillors
- **leader name2**: Tokyo's Diet electoral districts#House of Councillors, 11
- **total type**: Total
- **area total km2**: 2194.07
- **area rank**: Prefectures of Japan, 45th in Japan
- **elevation max m**: 2017
- **elevation min m**: 0
- **population as of**: 2021
- **population total**: 13,960,236
- **population rank**: List of cities in Japan, 1st in Japan
- **population density km2**: 6363
- **population metro**: 37,468,000 (Greater Tokyo Area), 1st in the world
- **population demonym**: Tokyoite
- **demographics type1**: GDP
- **demographics1 title1**: Total, nominal
- **demographics1 info1**: ¥106.6 trillion
(~US$1.0 trillion)
- **demographics1 title2**: Per capita
- **demographics1 info2**: ¥7.7 million
(~US$70,000)
- **demographics1 footnotes**:  (2018)
- **timezone**: Japan Standard Time
- **utc offset**: +09:00
- **postal code type**: ISO 3166-2:JP, ISO 3166-2
- **postal code**: JP-13
- **blank name sec2**: Flower
- **blank info sec2**: Prunus × yedoensis, Yoshino cherry
- **blank1 name sec2**: Tree
- **blank1 info sec2**: Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
- **blank2 name sec2**: Bird
- **blank2 info sec2**: Black-headed gull


## Infobox (chinese)

- **title**: Tokyo
- **pic**: Tokyo (Chinese characters).svg
- **piccap**: _Tōkyō_ in _kanji_
- **picupright**: 0.4
- **kanji**: 東京
- **kyujitai**: 東亰
- **katakana**: トウキョウ
- **hiragana**: とうきょう
- **l**: "Eastern Capital"
- **romaji**: Tōkyō
- **revhep**: Toukyou