Tokyo

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A little more than 12 million people live in Tokyo while hundreds of thousands of others commute everyday from surrounding areas to work and do business in Tokyo. 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, as well as a major business and financial centre for all of East Asia.

It 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 low-rise apartments of six to ten floors and densely-packed family homes. Tokyo is also home to the world's most complex mass transit system, and is world-famous for its crowded rush hours.

Tokyo literally means "eastern capital" in Japanese, a meaning in opposition to an old capital to the west, Kyoto, which was renamed "Saikyo", meaning "western capital", for a brief period of time. In Hepburn, Tokyo is spelled Tōkyō. In Nippon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki it is Tokyo. In JSL, it is Tookyoo. Using alternate Hepburn romanization methods yields the above, and Toukyou. Alternatively, it was previously spelled Tokio in English, and is still spelled Tokio in some other languages like Dutch, Esperanto, German, and Spanish.

Administration

Tokyo has an administrative structure unique among the prefectures of Japan. It is officially designated as a "metropolis" (都 to). Although it generally resembles a prefecture, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government also offers partial city government functions to the 23 special wards comprising the heart of Tokyo, with a combined population of 8,134,688 and an area of 621.3 km². In addition to the special wards, Tokyo administers twenty-six suburban cities to the west, and a number of small islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Metropolitan Government's main offices (tochō) are located in the ward of Shinjuku.

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

Tokyo was initially constructed in 1457; 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.

Tokyo has been generally accepted as the sole capital of Japan since 1869, when the Emperor took up permanent residence there. However, the capital was never legally "transferred" to Tokyo, leading some to question whether Kyoto may still be the capital, or a co-capital. See: Capital of Japan debate 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.

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.

On March 20, 1995, Tokyo 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).

Geography

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

List of Cities

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

• Akiruno
• Akigawa (present Akiruno)
• Akishima
• Chofu
• Fuchu
• Fussa
• Hachioji
• Hamura
• Higashikurume
• Higashimurayama
• Higashiyamato
• Hino
• Hoya (present Nishi-tokyo)
• Inagi
• Kiyose
• Kodaira
• Koganei
• Kokubunji
• Komae
• Kunitachi
• Machida
• Mitaka
• Musashimurayama
• Musashino
• Nishi-tokyo
• Ome
• Tachikawa
• Tama
• Tanashi (present Nishi-tokyo)

Districts, Sub-prefecture, towns and villages

• Nishitama
  • Hinohara
  • Hinode
  • Itsukaichi (present Akiruno)
  • Mizuho
  • Okutama

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

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%)

Culture

Religious landmarks in Tokyo:

• Meiji Shrine
• Sensoji Temple
• St. Nikolai Cathedral
• Yasukuni Shrine

• 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
• Tokyo Metropolitan University
• University of Tokyo
• Waseda University

• 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:

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

Tokyo has one of the world's most extensive metro systems, which is run by the Tokyo Metro (formerly Teito Rapid Transit Authority, or 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

External link and reference

• Official Tokyo prefecture homepage
• Alternate spelling from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article