Portal:Tokyo

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Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is one of the most populous urban areas 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 as of 2024^[update].

Lying 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, the Tokyo Islands. Although most of the world recognizes Tokyo as a city, since 1943 its governing structure has been more akin to that of a prefecture, with an accompanying Governor and Assembly taking precedence over the smaller municipal governments that make up the metropolis. 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 hub of commerce and business.

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. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo (lit. 'Eastern Capital'). In 1923, Tokyo was greatly damaged 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, which fueled the Japanese economic miracle, in which Japan's economy became the second largest in the world at the time, behind that of the United States. As of 2023^[update], 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. (Full article...)

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Tokyo is the most populated of Japan's 47 prefectures. Mainland Tokyo is divided into two sections: Western Tokyo and the special wards of Tokyo. The prefecture's tallest structures are within the 23 special wards, which comprise the area formerly incorporated as Tokyo City. As of January 2025, there are over 200 structures in Tokyo that stand at least 150 metres tall (492 feet), of which 47 are at least 200 metres tall (656 feet), including those that are still under construction but have been topped out. Most of these structures are buildings; however, there are other types of structures among the tallest in the prefecture, such as freestanding towers and incineration smokestacks.

The tallest structure in the prefecture is Tokyo Skytree, a megatall lattice tower that rises 634 metres (2,080 feet), which was completed in 2012. It also stands as the tallest structure in Japan, the tallest tower in the world, and the third-tallest freestanding structure in the world. The second-tallest structure in Tokyo is the 333-metre-tall (1,092 feet) Tokyo Tower, a lattice tower completed in 1958. The tallest building and third-tallest overall structure is the 325-metre-tall (1,068 feet) Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower, completed in 2023 and being Tokyo's only supertall skyscraper. It is also the tallest building in Japan and the world's largest skyscraper by floor area. Including topped-out buildings, Tokyo is home to 17 of the 25 tallest freestanding structures and 18 of the 25 tallest buildings in Japan. (Full article...)

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A Honda Fit and a Toyota Platz are involved in a car accident at a Tokyo intersection.

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WikiProjects

You are invited to participate in the Tokyo task force, a task force dedicated to developing and improving articles about the Tokyo metropolis, including the Special wards of Tokyo, West Tokyo, and the islands.

General images

The following are images from various Tokyo-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from History of Tokyo)
Image 2The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku in 1982, before police cracked down on its illegal activities (from History of Tokyo)
Image 3A 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 4A 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 5A scene of the 2020 Summer Olympics' opening ceremony, where 1,824 drones formed the Games' logo. (from History of Tokyo)
Image 6Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara in 2003 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 7Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from History of Tokyo)
Image 8A jar from the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) found in Kugahara, Ōta (from History of Tokyo)
Image 9A German map of Tokyo from 1896 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 10Asakusa (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 11Map of operators in Greater Tokyo Area (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 12A section of the Tamagawa Josui in an 1856 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 13Tokyo Imperial University's law building before 1902 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 14An 1809 etched print of the Senso-ji temple, before it was firebombed during World War II and rebuilt (from History of Tokyo)
Image 15Otoya Yamaguchi preparing to stab Inejiro Asanuma a second time (from History of Tokyo)
Image 16Marunouchi (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 17Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet during his second visit to Tokyo in 1854 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 18Yukio Mishima giving a speech during his 1970 coup attempt at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force building (from History of Tokyo)
Image 19The Tokyo Skytree in 2014 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 20The Ginza Line, Asia's oldest subway line, first opened in 1927 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 21An 1814 handscroll depicting the Great Fire of Meireki (from History of Tokyo)
Image 22An 1869 picture scroll of the 1772 Great Meiwa Fire (from History of Tokyo)
Image 23Tokyo Haneda Airport (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 24Tokyo streets at night (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 25A view of the IMTFE in session (from History of Tokyo)
Image 26Funeral procession for Hirohito (by then renamed Showa) on 24 February 1989 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 27The 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 28Tokyo's 23 special wards, one part of the Tokyo Metropolis prefecture (from History of Tokyo)
Image 291960 protests against the United States-Japan Security Treaty (from History of Tokyo)
Image 30This 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 31Picture 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 32A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 33Tokyo from the air after the firebombing of the city, 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 34Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower viewed from Odaiba (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 35Shinjuku (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 36Taira no Masakado, who challenged the Emperor by becoming the effective ruler of Kanto (from History of Tokyo)
Image 37Rokumeikan, a club mixing Japanese and European styles (from History of Tokyo)
Image 38Shibuya (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 39Emperor Meiji, moving from Kyoto to Tokyo after the fall of Edo in 1868 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 40Tokyo-Wan Ferry Shirahama-maru (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 41JR Yamanote Line (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 42The Metropolitan Police Department burning at Marunouchi, near Hibiya Park during the 1923 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 43The Nikkei 225 stock market index from 1970 to 2024 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 44Hokusai's painting of the 47 ronin storming Kira Yoshinaka's mansion (from History of Tokyo)
Image 45The 1964 Summer Olympics closing ceremony (from History of Tokyo)
Image 46Toei bus (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 47A kawaraban (news broadsheet) depicting the damage of the 1855 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 48The Shintomi-za theater, as painted by Utagawa Hiroshige III in 1881 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 49This marker in Nihonbashi is the place from which distances along highways are reckoned. (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 50Ginza (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 51Nihonbashi Bridge, in a c. 1838–1842 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 52Ōta Dokan, who built the start to Edo Castle (from History of Tokyo)
Image 53A 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 54A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 55A painting of the new Tokyo Imperial Palace (from History of Tokyo)
Image 56Soil liquefaction in Kōtō after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 57Japan Defense Force chemical troops responding to the scene of the 1995 subway sarin attack, at mid-day (from History of Tokyo)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Japanese pianist Nagaoka Nobuko, a child prodigy called an "absolute genius", was killed in the final American firebombing 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 with his self-produced solo ice show Gift, two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu is expected to become the first ice skater to perform at the Tokyo Dome?
... 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?
... that Japan's oldest expressway is intended to be transformed into a park?
... that self-help author Beth Kempton held positions at both the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Tokyo and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London?

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Administrative divisions of Tokyo

Western Tokyo				Special wards
Okutama Hinohara Ōme Hinode Akiruno Hachiōji Hamura Mizuho Fussa Akishima	Hino Tama Machida Musashimurayama Tachikawa Kunitachi Fuchū Inagi Higashiyamato Kodaira	Kokubunji Koganei Chōfu Higashimurayama Kiyose Higashikurume Nishitōkyō Musashino Mitaka Komae		Nerima Suginami Setagaya Nakano Itabashi Toshima Shinjuku Shibuya Meguro Shinagawa	Ōta Kita Bunkyō Chiyoda Minato Chūō Adachi Arakawa Taitō Kōtō	Sumida Katsushika Edogawa