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 knowing 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.
Prior to the 17th century, Tokyo was predominantly a fishing village and was named
Edo. In 1603, however, the city ascended to political prominence after being named the seat of the
Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo emerged as one of the world's most-populous cities with a population of over one million people. 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 in retaliation for Japan's
attack on Pearl Harbor. Beginning in the mid-20th century, 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 behind
that of the United States. Tokyo is also part of an industrial region that spans from
Yokohama and
Kawasaki to
Chiba. , the city is home to 29 of the world's largest 500 companies listed in the annual
Fortune Global 500. (Full article...)
It was formed in 1947 as a merger of
Hongo and
Koishikawa wards following
Tokyo City's
transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Bunkyo ward exhibits contrasting
Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division. The Nezu and Sendagi neighborhoods in the ward's eastern corner is attached to the
Shitamachi area in
Ueno with more traditional Japanese atmosphere. On the other hand, the remaining areas of the ward typically represent Yamanote districts. (Full article...)
Image 2The 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 44Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from History of Tokyo)
Image 45Picture 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 52A 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)
... that episodes of the
TV Tokyo late-night show Nogizaka Under Construction are uploaded to
YouTube shortly after broadcast, which is considered unusual in Japanese media?
... that the first line to
STU48's "Hana wa Dare no Mono?", which imagines a world without borders, is often misheard as wishing for a world without
Tokyo?
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