Tokyo (東京; lit. eastern capital) is the capital and largest city of Japan, and the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

A little more than 12 million people live in the city while hundreds of thousands of others commute everyday from surrounding areas to work and do business in the city. Tokyo is the central place of politics, economy, culture and academics in Japan as well as the home of the Japanese emperor and the seat of the national government.

The city is well known for its highly modern skyscrapers, thousands of flashing neon signs, a bustling network of roads always filled with traffic, and a very extensive and complex underground railway system.

Tokyo literally means "eastern capital" in Japanese, to mean to oppose to an old capital in west, Kyoto, which was renamed "Saikyo", meaning "western capital", for a period of time. It was previously alternatively spelled Tokio in English, and is still spelled Tokio in some other languages like Dutch, Esperanto, German, and Spanish.

Administration

Tokyo is the only "metropolis" (都 to) in Japan, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has administrative authority over the 23 special wards comprising the inner city of Tokyo, with a combined population of 8,134,688 and area of 621.3 km2. The Metropolitan Government also administers twenty-six outlying suburbs to the west (classified as cities) and a number of small islands in the Pacific Ocean (see below). The offices are located in the ward of Shinjuku. While there is currently no municipality called Tokyo, the old Tokyo City, which existed until 1943, is now covered by the 23 special wards. See also: Prefectures of Japan

According to the Population Census in 2000, Tokyo has a population of 12,064,101 and area of 2186.9 km2. Tokyo is also part of the Greater Tokyo Area, which consists of Tokyo itself and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba. The Greater Tokyo area is the largest metropolitan area in the world with a population of 33,418,366.

History

Before the Meiji Restoration, the city was known as Edo (江戸). The Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 with Edo as its seat of government (de facto capital). (The emperor's residence, and formal capital, remained in Kyoto, that city had been the actual capital of Japan until that time.) In September of 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, Emperor Meiji ordered Edo to be renamed "Tokyo," meaning "Eastern Capital." The new name was meant to emphasize Tokyo's status as the new capital of Japan, both temporally and spiritually.

The Meiji oligarchs wanted to make Tokyo the sole capital of Japan, but members of the Imperial court insisted on recognizing both Kyoto and Tokyo as capitals: when Meiji moved into the former Edo Castle for the first time that November, he turned around a short time later and returned to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. He returned in March of 1869 to inaugurate the first Council of State. Shortly afterward, the Imperial court agreed that it would be easier to maintain their affairs alongside the government in Tokyo, establishing the city as de facto capital once more. Japanese law did not clearly acknowledge Tokyo as the sole capital of Japan until after World War II, when the Diet of Japan replaced the Emperor as the nucleus of government.

The Great Kanto earthquake struck Tokyo in 1923, killing approximately 70,000 people; a massive reconstruction plan was drawn up, but was too expensive to carry out except in part. Despite this, the city grew until the beginning of World War II. During the war, Tokyo was heavily bombed, much of the city was burned to the ground, and its population in 1945 was only half that of 1940.

After the end of the war, General Douglas MacArthur established his Occupation headquarters in what is now the Dai-Ichi Seimei building overlooking the Imperial Palace. The American presence in Tokyo made it an important command and logistics center during the Korean War. Tokyo still hosts a number of U.S. military bases, including Yokota Air Base and Camp Zama.

In the post-war years, Japan experienced an economic miracle (in part stimulated by the Korean War) that led it from post-war deprivation to tremendous economic success. In the process, Japan entered and very often came to dominate a range of industries including steel, shipbuilding, automobiles, semi-conductors, and consumer electronics. Tokyo's postwar "coming out" is often said to be the 1964 Summer Olympics, which publicized the city on an international stage and brought global attention to the Japanese miracle.

Growing steadily into the economic bubble of the late 1980s, Tokyo became one of the most dynamic cities on Earth, with a tremendous range of social and economic activities, myriad restaurants and clubs, a major financial district, tremendous industrial strength, a wealth of shops, and world-class entertainment opportunities. The construction boom of the bubble years was one of the greatest in world history (as judged e.g. by the level of building expenditures in relation to the size of the economy), leading Tokyo to have an enormously more modern capital stock of buildings than similar metropoles such as London and New York City. Although the recession following the bursting of the "bubble economy" in the early 1990s hurt the city, Tokyo remains the predominant economic center of East Asia, rivalled only by Hong Kong and Singapore.

On March 20, 1995 the city became the focus of international media attention in the wake of the Aum Shinrikyo cult terrorist organisation attack with Sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system (in the tunnels beneath the political district of central Tokyo) in which 12 people were killed and thousands affected (see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway).

Tokyo today

The city today is one of the world's most important urban centres. It is a major business and financial centre as well as the political capital of Japan. The city is unusual in that it has far fewer skyscrapers than other cities of its size, mostly due to earthquake construction codes. Rather it is mostly comprised of either low-rise apartments of six to ten floors or of densely packed family homes. Tokyo is also home to the world's most complex transit/train system and is world-famous for its crowded rush hours.

Geography

Tokyo prefecture is divided into mainland and island areas. The mainland is located at the northwest of Tokyo Bay, about 90 km east to west and 25 km north to south. It borders Chiba prefecture in the east, Yamanashi prefecture in the west, Kanagawa prefecture in the south, and Saitama prefecture in the north. The islands are made up of Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands, stretching 1,000km in the Pacific Ocean.

Wards

Tokyo prefecture has 23 special wards in an area of about 621 square kilometers. As of September 1, 2002 the total population of the 23 wards was about 8.28 million, with a population density of 13,333 persons per square kilometer. Each ward is a local municipality with its own elected mayors and assemblies:

• Adachi
• Arakawa
• Bunkyo
• Chiyoda
• Chuo
• Edogawa
• Itabashi
• Tokyo
• Kita
• Koto
• Meguro
• Minato
• Nakano
• Nerima
• Ota
• Setagaya
• Shibuya
• Shinagawa
• Shinjuku
• Suginami
• Sumida
• Toshima
• Taito

List of Cities

In addition to wards, the prefecture has cities like other prefectures.

• Akiruno
• Akishima
• Chofu
• Fuchu
• Fussa
• Hachioji
• Hamura
• Higashikurume
• Higashimurayama
• Higashiyamato
• Hino
• Inagi
• Kiyose
• Kodaira
• Koganei
• Kokubunji
• Komae
• Kunitachi
• Machida
• Mitaka
• Musashimurayama
• Musashino
• Nishitokyo
• Ome
• Tachikawa
• Tama

Districts, Sub-prefecture, towns and villages

• Nishitama
  • Hinohara
  • Hinode
  • Mizuho
  • Okutama

The following are towns and villages on islands.

• Hachijo sub-prefecture
  • Aogashima
  • Hachijo
• Miyake sub-prefecture
  • Mikurajima
  • Miyake
• Ogasawara sub-prefecture
  • Ogasawara
• Oshima sub-prefecture
  • Kozushima
  • Niijima
  • Oshima
  • Toshima

The list is in their standard codes for areas of prefectures and municipalities for statistical use.

Economy

Tokyo is the economic center of Japan: most of Japan's printing, broadcasting, telecommunications, banking, insurance, and financial services companies are based there, and many prominent international corporations are either headquartered in Tokyo or have their main Japanese offices there.

Companies headquartered in Tokyo

• All Nippon Airways
• Casio
• East Japan Railway Company
• Fujitsu
• Honda
• Japan Airlines
• Keio
• Mitsubishi
• Mitsui
• Mitsukoshi
• Mizuho Financial Group
• Nomura Group
• NKK
• NTT
• Odakyu
• Resona
• SEGA, Sega of Japan
• Sony
• Sumitomo
• Toshiba

Demographics

By age (2002):

• Juveniles (0-14): 1.43 million (12%)
• Working population (15-64): 8.5 million (71.4%)
• Aged population (65+): 1.98 million (16.6%)

Foreign resident population: 327,000 (2001)

Net population growth: +68,000 (2000 to 2001)

Culture

Religious landmarks in Tokyo:

• Sensoji Temple
• St. Nikolai Cathedral
• Yasukuni Shrine

Major universities in Tokyo:

• Gakushuin University
• Hitotsubashi University
• Hosei University
• Keio University (Keio Gijuku)
• Kokugakuin University
• Meiji Gakuin University
• Meiji University
• Nihon University
• Sophia University
• Tokyo Institute of Technology
• University of Tokyo
• Waseda University

Baseball clubs in Tokyo:

• Yakult Swallows
• Yomiuri Giants

Tourism

Some famous places for sight-seeing include:

• Japanese Imperial Palace (Kokyo)
• Japanese landmarks
• Tokyo Tower
• Tokyo National Museum
• Edo-Tokyo Museum
• Ginza shopping district and the Kabukiza theater
• Roppongi Hills, one of Tokyo's largest skyscrapers
• Akihabara electronics district
• Budokan and Tokyo Dome arenas
• Kabuki-cho, a famous entertainment district
• Odaiba, a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay
• The Rainbow Bridge and Yurikamome monorail
• Akasaka Palace and Jingu Gaien Park
• Meiji Shrine
• Ueno Park
• Sumida Park
• Harajuku, hub of Japan's youth culture
• Nagata-cho, location of the Diet Building and other government offices
• Sensoji temple in Asakusa
• Tokyo Disney in nearby Urayasu

Prefectural symbols

Coat of arms: A sun, sending forth its radiance in six directions.

Miscellaneous topics

Tokyo is home to Yokota Air Base of the United States Air Force.

Transportation

Airports:

• New Tokyo International Airport (Narita Airport), Narita, Chiba Prefecture
• Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport), Ota, Tokyo

New Tokyo International Airport has all of the international service coming into the city, while Tokyo International has the lion's share of the intra-Japan flights coming into the city.

Tokyo has one of the world's most extensive metro systems, which is run by the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (Eidan) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei).

Major railway stations:

• Akihabara Station
• Ikebukuro Station
• Shibuya Station
• Shinagawa Station
• Shinjuku Station
• Tokyo Station
• Ueno Station

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