View of Shinjuku skyscrapers and Mount Fuji as seen from the Bunkyo Civic Center in Tokyo
The Flag of the Tokyo Metropolis
Tokyo (; Japanese : 東京 , Tōkyō , [toːkʲoː] ⓘ ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis (東京都 , Tōkyō-to ), is the capital of Japan and one of the most populous cities in the world , with a population of over 14 million residents as of 2023 and the second-most-populated capital in the world . The Greater Tokyo Area , which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring prefectures , is the most-populous metropolitan area in the world, with 41 million residents .
Located at the head of Tokyo Bay , Tokyo is part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu , Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan . The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyo's central 23 special wards (which formerly made up Tokyo City ), various commuter towns and suburbs in its western area , and two outlying island chains known as the Tokyo Islands . Despite most of the world recognizing Tokyo as a city, since 1943 its governing structure has been more akin to a prefecture, with an accompanying Governor and Assembly taking precedence over the smaller municipal governments which make up the metropolis. Notable special wards in Tokyo include Chiyoda , the site of the National Diet Building and the Tokyo Imperial Palace ; Shinjuku , the city's administrative center; and Shibuya , a commercial, cultural, and business hub in the city.
Before the 17th century, Tokyo, then known as Edo , was mainly a fishing village. It gained political prominence in 1603 when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate . By the mid-18th century, Edo was among the world's largest cities, with over a million residents. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo (lit. ' Eastern Capital ' ). In 1923, Tokyo was damaged substantially by the Great Kantō earthquake , and the city was later badly damaged by allied bombing raids during World War II . Beginning in the late 1940s, Tokyo underwent rapid reconstruction and expansion that contributed to the era's so-called Japanese economic miracle in which Japan's economy propelled to the second-largest in the world at the time behind that of the United States . , the city is home to 29 of the world's 500 largest companies, as listed in the annual Fortune Global 500 ; the second-highest number of any city behind only Beijing . (Full article... )
The
National Diet (Japanese : 国会 , Hepburn : Kokkai ) is the national
legislature of
Japan . It is composed of a lower house, called the
House of Representatives (
衆議院 ,
Shūgiin ), and an upper house, the
House of Councillors (
参議院 ,
Sangiin ). Both houses are directly elected under a
parallel voting system . In addition to passing laws, the
Diet is formally responsible for nominating the
Prime Minister . The Diet was first established as the Imperial Diet in 1890 under the
Meiji Constitution , and took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the
post-war constitution . Both houses meet in the
National Diet Building (国会議事堂 , Kokkai-gijidō ) in
Nagatachō ,
Chiyoda ,
Tokyo . (
Full article... )
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The Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 from recycled military tanks
Tokyo Tower (
Tōkyō tawā ,
pronounced [toːkʲoː taɰᵝaː] ⓘ , officially called
日本電波塔 ,
Nippon denpatō , "Japan Radio Tower") is a
communications and
observation tower in the Shiba-koen district of
Minato, Tokyo , Japan, built in 1958. At 332.9 meters (1,092 ft), it was the
tallest tower in Japan until the construction of
Tokyo Skytree in 2012. The structure is an
Eiffel Tower -inspired
lattice tower that is painted white and
international orange to comply with
air safety regulations. It was constructed of steel, a third of which was scrap metal taken from US tanks damaged in the Korean War.
The following are images from various Tokyo-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 3 A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest
court ranks , higher than most court nobles. (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 4 Yukio Mishima giving a speech during his 1970 coup attempt at the
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force building (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 5 Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 7 The five-story pagoda of
Kan'ei-ji , which was constructed during the reign of
Tokugawa Hidetada and required the building of the
Kimon (Devil's Gate) (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 8 Nihonbashi Bridge , in a c. 1838–1842 painting by Hiroshige (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 9 Otoya Yamaguchi preparing to stab
Inejiro Asanuma a second time (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 10 Tokyo from the air after the
firebombing of the city , 1945 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 11 The
Kabukicho district of
Shinjuku in 1982, before police cracked down on its illegal activities (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 12 Tokyo governor
Shintaro Ishihara in 2003 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 13 The
Ginza Line , Asia's oldest subway line, first opened in 1927 (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 14 A view of the
IMTFE in session (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 17 Tokyo streets at night (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 18 A jar from the
Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) found in Kugahara,
Ōta (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 20 An 1869 picture scroll of the 1772
Great Meiwa Fire (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 21 A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 22 The
Nikkei 225 stock market index from 1970 to 2024 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 24 A German map of Tokyo from 1896 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 26 Taira no Masakado , who challenged the Emperor by becoming the effective ruler of
Kanto (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 29 Ōta Dokan , who built the start to
Edo Castle (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 30 Picture of the Upper Class, a c. 1794–1795 painting by Utamaro. The woman on the left is lower in class than the woman on the right, who wears more colorful clothes (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 31 Funeral procession for Hirohito (by then renamed
Showa ) on 24 February 1989 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 32 The
Shintomi-za theater, as painted by
Utagawa Hiroshige III in 1881 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 33 A section of the
Tamagawa Josui in an 1856 painting by
Hiroshige (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 34 Tokyo Haneda Airport (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 35 A scene of the
2020 Summer Olympics' opening ceremony , where 1,824 drones formed the Games' logo. (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 36 Map of operators in Greater Tokyo Area (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 37 A painting of the new
Tokyo Imperial Palace (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 39 Koreans in Japan about to be stabbed by Japanese vigilantes with bamboo spears immediately after the earthquake (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 40 An 1809 etched print of the
Senso-ji temple, before it was firebombed during
World War II and rebuilt (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 41 A
Torii Kiyomasu painting of
kabuki actor
Ichikawa Danjuro I playing
Soga Tokimune . This was likely one of the most popular ukiyo-e
actor prints (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 42 A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 43 Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 44 Tokyo Imperial University 's law building before 1902 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 45 Japan Defense Force chemical troops responding to the scene of the
1995 subway sarin attack , at mid-day (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 46 Hokusai's painting of the
47 ronin storming
Kira Yoshinaka 's mansion (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 47 This 1858 map shows the
yamanote western district (at top) and the
shitamachi eastern district (at bottom).
Nihonbashi is at center (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 48 An 1814 handscroll depicting the
Great Fire of Meireki (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 49 Rokumeikan , a hotel mixing Japanese and European styles (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 50 Emperor Meiji , moving from
Kyoto to Tokyo after the
fall of Edo in 1868 (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 51 This marker in Nihonbashi is the place from which distances along highways are reckoned. (from
Transport in Greater Tokyo )
Image 52 The Metropolitan Police Department burning at
Marunouchi , near
Hibiya Park during the 1923 earthquake (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 53 A
kawaraban (news broadsheet) depicting the damage of the 1855 earthquake (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 56 A scene from the
Tokugawa Seiseiroku , showing an aspect of the
sankin-kōtai system: the festive attendance day of daimyo at Edo Castle (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 57 Tokyo 's
23 special wards , one part of the Tokyo Metropolis prefecture (from
History of Tokyo )
Image 58 Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet during his second visit to Tokyo in 1854 (from
History of Tokyo )
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Administrative divisions of Tokyo