 Tokyo (東京, Tōkyō), formally Tokyo Metropolis (東京都,
Tōkyō-to) - One of the 47 prefectures of Japan and,
unique among the prefectures, provides certain municipal
services characteristic of a city, as defined by Japanese
law.
Because it is the seat of the Japanese government and the
Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial
Family, Tokyo is the de facto capital of Japan. (The name of
Tokyo means "eastern capital" in Japanese).
Tokyo is the most populous prefecture and city in the
country. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, although
each administratively a city in its own right, constitute
the area informally considered as the "city of Tokyo" and
are collectively one of the largest cities in the world with
a total population of over 8 million people.[3] The total
population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million.
The Greater Tokyo Area, centered on Tokyo but also including
Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, is the most populous
metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 35
million people. It has been the world's most populous urban
area since between 1965 and 1970, and despite Japan's
overall declining population, is still growing.
Tokyo has the largest metropolitan gross domestic product in
the world for a city, and it held the title of the world's
most expensive city for over a decade from 1992 through
2005.
Tokyo is a major global city and megacity. The name "Tokyo"
refers variously to Tokyo Metropolis (the prefecture) as a
whole, or only to the main urban mass under its jurisdiction
(thus excluding west Tama and Izu and Ogasawara Islands), or
even the whole of Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo
and parts of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi,
Ibaraki, and Yamanashi prefectures, depending on context.
This article uses the name to refer to Tokyo Metropolis
unless otherwise stated.
The mainland portion of Tokyo lies northwest of Tokyo Bay
and measures about 90 km east to west and 25 km north to
south. Chiba Prefecture borders it to the east, Yamanashi to
the west, Kanagawa to the south, and Saitama to the north.
Mainland Tokyo is further subdivided into the special wards
(occupying the eastern half) and the Tama area (多摩地域)
stretching westwards.
Also within the administrative boundaries of Tokyo
Metropolis are two island chains in the Pacific Ocean
directly south: the Izu Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands,
which stretch more than 1,000 km away from mainland Japan.
Because of these islands and mountainous regions to the
west, Tokyo's overall population density figures far under
represent the real figures for urban and suburban regions of
Tokyo.
Under Japanese law, Tokyo is designated as a to (都),
translated as metropolis. Its administrative structure is
similar to that of Japan's other prefectures. Within Tokyo
lie dozens of smaller entities, most of them
conventionally[citation needed] referred to as cities. It
includes twenty-three special wards (特別区 -ku) which until
1943 comprised the city of Tokyo but are now separate,
self-governing municipalities, each with a mayor and a
council, and having the status of a city. In addition to
these 23 municipalities, Tokyo also encompasses 26 more
cities (市 -shi), five towns (町 -chō or machi), and eight
villages (村 -son or -mura), each of which has a local
government. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is headed by a
publicly elected governor and metropolitan assembly. Its
headquarters are in the ward of Shinjuku. They govern all of
Tokyo, including lakes, rivers, dams, farms, remote islands,
and national parks in addition to its famous neon jungle,
skyscrapers and crowded subways.
Tokyo lies in the humid subtropical climate zone (Koppen
climate classification Cfa), with hot humid summers and
generally mild winters with cool spells. Annual rainfall
averages 1,380 mm (55 inches), with a wetter summer and a
drier winter. Snowfall is sporadic, but does occur almost
annually. Tokyo is an example of an urban heat island; the
city's population is a significant contributor to its
climate. Tokyo has been cited as a "convincing example of
the relationship between urban growth and climate".
Tokyo was hit by powerful earthquakes in 1703, 1782, 1812,
1855 and 1923. The 1923 earthquake, with an estimated
magnitude of 8.3, killed 142,000 people.
 Tokyo
was originally known as Edo, meaning estuary. Its name was
changed to Tokyo (Tōkyō: tō (east) + kyō (capital)) when it
became the de facto imperial capital in 1868. During the
early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an
alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters
representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English
documents use the spelling "Tokei". This pronunciation is
now obsolete.
Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo. In
1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu
made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the
town became the center of his nationwide military
government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into
one of the largest cities in the world with a population
topping one million by the 18th century. It became the de
facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in
Kyoto, the imperial capital.
After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under
the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the
17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already
the nation's political and cultural center, and the
emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as
well with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial
Palace. The city of Tokyo was established, and continued to
be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in
1943 and merged with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo.
Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about the
turn of the century (1900) to be centered around major train
stations in a high-density fashion[citation needed], so
suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street
level and with their own right-of-way. This differs from
other world cities, such as Los Angeles, that are
low-density and automobile-centric. Though expressways have
been built, the basic design has not changed.
Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th
century, but it recovered from both. One was the 1923 Great
Kantō earthquake, and the other was World War II. The
firebombings in 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and half
of the city destroyed, were almost as devastating as the
atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. After the
war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt, and showcased to the
world during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new
high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60, a new and
controversial airport at Narita (well outside Tokyo), and a
population increase to about 11 million (in the metropolitan
area).
Tokyo's subway and commuter rail network became one of the
busiest in the world as more and more people moved to the
area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during an
economic bubble. The bubble burst in the early 1990s and
many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with real
estate shrinking in value. A major recession followed,
making the 1990s Japan's "lost decade" from which it is
slowly recovering.
Tokyo still sees new urban developments on large lots of
less profitable land. Recent projects include Ebisu Garden
Place, Tennozu Isle, Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Shinagawa
(now also a Shinkansen station), and the Marunouchi side of
Tokyo Station. Buildings of significance are demolished for
more up-to-date shopping facilities such as Omotesando
Hills. Land reclamation projects in Tokyo have also been
going on for centuries. The most prominent is the Odaiba
area, now a major shopping and entertainment center.
Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower as seen from Odaiba at night.
Various plans have been proposed for transferring national
government functions from Tokyo to secondary capitals in
other regions of Japan, in order to slow down rapid
development in Tokyo and revitalize economically lagging
areas of the country. These plans have been controversial
within Japan and have yet to be realized.
Islands
Tokyo has numerous outlying islands, which extend as far as
1850 km from central Tokyo. Because of the islands' distance
from the administrative headquarters of the metropolitan
government in Shinjuku, local offices administer them.
The Izu Islands are a group of volcanic islands and form
part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The islands in
order from closest to Tokyo are Izu Ōshima, Toshima, Niijima,
Shikinejima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Mikurajima, Hachijojima,
and Aogashima. Izu Ōshima and Hachijojima are towns. The
remaining islands are six villages, with Niijima and
Shikinejima forming one village.
The Ogasawara Islands include, from north to south, Chichi-jima,
Nishinoshima, Haha-jima, Kita Iwo Jima, Iwo Jima, and Minami
Iwo Jima. Ogasawara also administers two tiny outlying
islands: Minami Torishima, the easternmost point in Japan
and at 1,850 km the most distant island from central Tokyo,
and Okino Torishima, the southernmost point in Japan. The
last island is contested by the People's Republic of China
as being only uninhabited rocks. The Iwo chain and the
outlying islands have no permanent population, but host
Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel. Local populations
are only found on Chichi-jima and Haha-jima. The islands
form the village of Ogasawara.
National Parks
Chichibu Tama Kai National Park, in Nishitama and spilling
over into Yamanashi and Saitama Prefectures
Meiji no Mori Takao Quasi-National Park, around Mount Takao
to the south of Hachiōji
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which includes all of the Izu
Islands
Ogasawara National Park. As of 2006, efforts were being made
to make Ogasawara National Park a UNESCO natural World
Heritage Site.
Economy
Tokyo is one of the three world finance "command centers",
along with New York and London. Tokyo has the largest
metropolitan economy in the world. According to a study
conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Tokyo urban area
(35.2 million people) had a total GDP of US$1,191 billion in
2005 (at purchasing power parity), ranking again as the
largest urban agglomeration GDP in the world.
Tokyo is a major international finance center, houses the
headquarters of several of the world's largest investment
banks and insurance companies, and serves as a hub for
Japan's transportation, publishing, and broadcasting
industries. During the centralized growth of Japan's economy
following World War II, many large firms moved their
headquarters from cities such as Osaka (the historical
commercial capital) to Tokyo, in an attempt to take
advantage of better access to the government. This trend has
begun to slow due to ongoing population growth in Tokyo and
the high cost of living there.
Tokyo was rated by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the
most expensive (highest cost-of-living) city in the world
for 14 years in a row ending in 2006. This analysis is for
living a Western corporate executive lifestyle, with items
like a detached house and several automobiles.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is the second largest in the world
by market capitalization of listed shares, at $4.99
trillion. Only the New York Stock Exchange is larger. In the
early 1990s, at the asset bubble peak, it accounted for more
than 60% of the entire world's stock market values.
Tokyo had 8,460 ha (20,900 acres) of agricultural land as of
2003, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, placing it last among the nation's prefectures.
The farmland is concentrated in Western Tokyo. Perishables
such as vegetables, fruits, and flowers can be conveniently
shipped to the markets in the eastern part of the
prefecture. Japanese leaf spinach and spinach are the most
important vegetables; as of 2000, Tokyo supplied 32.5% of
the Japanese leaf spinach sold at its central produce
market.
With 36% of its area covered by forest, Tokyo has extensive
growths of cryptomeria and Japanese cypress, especially in
the mountainous western communities of Akiruno, Ōme, Okutama,
Hachiōji, Hinode, and Hinohara. Decreases in the price of
lumber, increases in the cost of production, and advancing
old age among the forestry population have resulted in a
decline in Tokyo's output. In addition, pollen, especially
from cryptomeria, is a major allergen for the nearby
population centers.
Tokyo Bay was once a major source of fish. Presently, most
of Tokyo's fish production comes from the outer islands,
such as Izu Ōshima and Hachijōjima. Skipjack tuna, nori, and
aji are among the ocean products.
Tourism in Tokyo is also a contributor to the economy.
Demographics
Over eight million people live within Tokyo's 23 wards.
During the daytime, the population swells by over 2.5
million as workers and students commute from adjacent areas.
This effect is even more pronounced in the three central
wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, whose collective
population is less than 300,000 at night, but over two
million during the day. The entire prefecture has 12,790,000
residents in October 2007 (8,657,000 in 23 wards), with an
increase of over 3 million in the day. Tokyo is at its
highest population ever, while that of the 23 wards peak
official count was 8,893,094 in the 1965 Census, with the
count dipping below 8 million in the 1995 Census. People
continue to move back into the core city as land prices have
fallen dramatically.
As of 2005, the five most common foreign nationalities found
in Tokyo are Chinese (123,661), Korean (106,697), Filipino
(31,077), American (18,848) and British (7,696).[30]
The 1889 Census recorded 1,389,600 people in Tokyo City,
Japan's largest city at the time.
Transportation
Tokyo is Japan's largest domestic and international hub for
rail, ground, and air transportation. Public transportation
within Tokyo is dominated by an extensive network of clean
and efficient trains and subways run by a variety of
operators, with buses, monorails and trams playing a
secondary feeder role.
Within Ōta, one of the 23 special wards, Tokyo International
Airport ("Haneda") offers mainly domestic flights. Outside
Tokyo, Narita International Airport, in Chiba Prefecture, is
the major gateway for international travelers.
Various islands governed by Tokyo have their own airports.
Hachijōjima (Hachijojima Airport), Miyakejima (Miyakejima
Airport), and Izu Ōshima (Oshima Airport) have service to
Tokyo International and other airports.
Rail is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo, which
has the most extensive urban railway network in the world
and an equally extensive network of surface lines. JR East
operates Tokyo's largest railway network, including the
Yamanote Line loop that circles the center of downtown
Tokyo. Two organizations operate the subway network: the
private Tokyo Metro and the governmental Tokyo Metropolitan
Bureau of Transportation. The metropolitan government and
private carriers operate bus routes. Local, regional, and
national services are available, with major terminals at the
giant railroad stations, including Tokyo and Shinjuku.
Expressways link the capital to other points in the Greater
Tokyo area, the Kantō region, and the islands of Kyūshū and
Shikoku.
Other transportation includes taxis operating in the special
wards and the cities and towns. Also long-distance ferries
serve the islands of Tokyo and carry passengers and cargo to
domestic and foreign ports.
Education
Tokyo has many universities, junior colleges, and vocational
schools. Many of Japan's most prestigious universities are
in Tokyo, the University of Tokyo being the most prestigious
of all. National universities located in Tokyo include
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Medical and Dental
University, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo
Institute of Technology and University of Tokyo. There is
only one public university (i.e., not national): the Tokyo
Metropolitan University. Keio University and Waseda
University, top private universities in Japan, are located
in Tokyo. Tokyo also has a few universities well-known for
classes conducted in English. They include International
Christian, Sophia, Waseda University, and Temple University
Japan. For an extensive list, see List of universities in
Tokyo.
Publicly run kindergartens, elementary schools (years 1
through 6), and junior high schools (7 through 9) are
operated by local wards or municipal offices. Public high
schools in Tokyo are run by the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government Board of Education and are called "Metropolitan
High Schools". Tokyo also has many private schools from
kindergarten through high school.
Culture and sports
Tokyo has many museums. In Ueno Park are four national
museums: Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum
and specializing in traditional Japanese art; the National
Museum of Western Art; and the Tokyo National Museum of
Modern Art, with its collections of Japanese modern art as
well as over 40,000 Japanese and foreign films. Also in Ueno
Park are the National Museum of Science and the public zoo.
Other museums include the Nezu Art Museum in Aoyama; the
Edo-Tokyo Museum in the Sumida Ward across the Sumida River
from the center of Tokyo; and the National Diet Library,
National Archives, and the National Museum of Modern Art,
which are located near the Imperial Palace.
Tokyo has many theaters for the performing arts as well.
These include national and private theaters for traditional
forms of Japanese drama (like noh and kabuki) as well as
modern dramas. Symphony orchestras and other musical
organizations perform Western and traditional music. Tokyo
also hosts modern Japanese and Western pop and rock music at
venues ranging in size from intimate clubs to
internationally known arenas like the Nippon Budokan.
Many different festivals occur throughout Tokyo. Major
events include the Sannō at Hie Shrine, the Sanja at Asakusa
Shrine, and the biennial Kanda Festivals. The last features
a parade with elaborately decorated floats and thousands of
people. Annually on the last Saturday of July, an enormous
fireworks display over the Sumida River attracts over a
million viewers. Once cherry blossoms, or sakura, bloom in
spring, many residents gather in Ueno Park, Inokashira Park,
and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for picnics under the
blossoms.
Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of
Tokyo, Japan is known internationally for its youth style
and fashion.
Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed. In November
of 2007, Michelin released their guide for fine dining in
Tokyo, garnering 191 stars in total, or about twice as many
as its nearest competitor, Paris. Eight establishments were
awarded the maximum of three stars (Paris has 10), 25
received two stars, and 117 earned one star. Of the eight
top-rated restaurants, three offer traditional Japanese fine
dining, two are sushi houses, three serve French cuisine.
Sports in Tokyo are diverse. Tokyo is home to two
professional baseball clubs, the Yakult Swallows (Meiji-Jingu
Stadium) and Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo Dome). The Japan Sumo
Association is also headquartered in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku
Kokugikan sumo arena where three official sumo tournaments
are held annually (in January, May, and September). Football
(soccer) clubs in Tokyo include FC Tokyo and Tokyo Verdy
1969, both of which play at Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu.
Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics. National Stadium,
also known as Olympic Stadium, Tokyo is host to a number of
international sporting events. With a number of world-class
sports venues, Tokyo often hosts national and international
sporting events such as tennis tournaments, swim meets,
marathons, American football exhibition games, judo, karate,
etc. Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, in Sendagaya, Shibuya, is
a large sports complex that includes swimming pools,
training rooms, and a large indoor arena.
The special wards (tokubetsu-ku) of Tokyo comprise the area
formerly incorporated as Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, Tokyo
City was merged with Tokyo Prefecture (東京府, Tōkyō-fu)
forming the current "metropolitan prefecture". As a result
of this merger, unlike other city wards in Japan, these
wards are not part of any larger incorporated city.
Each ward is a municipality with its own elected mayor and
assembly like the other cities of Japan. The wards differ
from other cities in that certain governmental functions are
handled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The special wards of Tokyo are as follows:
Adachi
Arakawa
Bunkyō
Chiyoda
Chūō
Edogawa
Itabashi
Katsushika
Kita
Kōtō
Meguro
Minato
Nakano
Nerima
Ōta
Setagaya
Shibuya
Shinagawa
Shinjuku
Suginami
Sumida
Taitō
The term "central Tokyo" today may refer to the 23 special
wards, the centers of Shinjuku, Minato, Chiyoda and Chūō
connected and enclosed by the Yamanote Line, or to the three
centrally located wards of Chiyoda, Chūō and Minato.
Western Tokyo
To the west of the special wards, Tokyo Metropolis consists
of cities, towns and villages that enjoy the same legal
status as those elsewhere in Japan.
While serving a role as "bed towns" for those working in
central Tokyo, some of these also have a local commercial
and industrial base. Collectively, these are often known as
the Tama Area or Western Tokyo.
Twenty-six cities lie within the western part of Tokyo:
Akiruno
Akishima
Chōfu
Fuchū
Fussa
Hachiōji
Hamura
Higashikurume
Higashimurayama
Higashiyamato
Hino
Inagi
Kiyose
Kodaira
Koganei
Kokubunji
Komae
Kunitachi
Machida
Mitaka
Musashimurayama
Musashino
Nishitōkyō
Ōme
Tachikawa
Tama
Information source: “Tokyo.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 4 Mar. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 4 Mar. 2008 <Tokyo>. |
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