Portal:Tokyo

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The Tokyo Portal

Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of over 14 million residents within the city proper as of 2023. 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].

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. 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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A road passing through a part of Tokyo which was destroyed in the 10 March 1945 air raid

On the night of 9/10 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city. This attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse by the USAAF and is known as the Tokyo Great Air Raid (東京大空襲, Tōkyō dai-kūshū) in Japan. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 and possibly over 100,000 Japanese people were killed, mostly civilians, and one million were left homeless, making it the most destructive single air attack in human history. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved largely inadequate; 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost.

The attack on Tokyo was an intensification of the air raids on Japan which had begun in June 1944. Prior to this operation, the USAAF had focused on a precision bombing campaign against Japanese industrial facilities. These attacks were generally unsuccessful, which contributed to the decision to shift to firebombing. The operation during the early hours of 10 March was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city. The USAAF units employed significantly different tactics from those used in precision raids, including bombing by night with the aircraft flying at low altitudes. The extensive destruction caused by the raid led to these tactics becoming standard for the USAAF's B-29s until the end of the war. (Full article...)

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Night view of Shinjuku, Tokyo

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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 1The 1964 Summer Olympics closing ceremony (from History of Tokyo)
Image 2Tokyo-Wan Ferry Shirahama-maru (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 3JR Yamanote Line (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 4A 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 5Otoya Yamaguchi preparing to stab Inejiro Asanuma a second time (from History of Tokyo)
Image 6Funeral procession for Hirohito (by then renamed Showa) on 24 February 1989 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 7A view of the IMTFE in session (from History of Tokyo)
Image 8Japan Defense Force chemical troops responding to the scene of the 1995 subway sarin attack, at mid-day (from History of Tokyo)
Image 9Tokyo Imperial University's law building before 1902 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 10The Tokyo Skytree in 2014 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 11Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara in 2003 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 12A German map of Tokyo from 1896 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 13Taira no Masakado, who challenged the Emperor by becoming the effective ruler of Kanto (from History of Tokyo)
Image 14Tokyo from the air after the firebombing of the city, 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 15An 1814 handscroll depicting the Great Fire of Meireki (from History of Tokyo)
Image 16The Shintomi-za theater, as painted by Utagawa Hiroshige III in 1881 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 17Picture 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 18Map of operators in Greater Tokyo Area (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 19Ōta Dokan, who built the start to Edo Castle (from History of Tokyo)
Image 20Hokusai's painting of the 47 ronin storming Kira Yoshinaka's mansion (from History of Tokyo)
Image 21Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from History of Tokyo)
Image 22Ginza (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 23Marunouchi (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 24Tokyo's 23 special wards, one part of the Tokyo Metropolis prefecture (from History of Tokyo)
Image 25Emperor Meiji, moving from Kyoto to Tokyo after the fall of Edo in 1868 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 26A section of the Tamagawa Josui in an 1856 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 271960 protests against the United States-Japan Security Treaty (from History of Tokyo)
Image 28A kawaraban (news broadsheet) depicting the damage of the 1855 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 29Toei bus (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 30The Ginza Line, Asia's oldest subway line, first opened in 1927 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 31The 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 32A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 33An 1869 picture scroll of the 1772 Great Meiwa Fire (from History of Tokyo)
Image 34A scene of the 2020 Summer Olympics' opening ceremony, where 1,824 drones formed the Games' logo. (from History of Tokyo)
Image 35Tokyo Haneda Airport (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 36Nihonbashi Bridge, in a c. 1838–1842 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 37Shinjuku (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 38The Metropolitan Police Department burning at Marunouchi, near Hibiya Park during the 1923 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 39A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 40Tokyo streets at night (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 41Yukio Mishima giving a speech during his 1970 coup attempt at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force building (from History of Tokyo)
Image 42This 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 43An 1809 etched print of the Senso-ji temple, before it was firebombed during World War II and rebuilt (from History of Tokyo)
Image 44Soil liquefaction in Kōtō after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 45Rokumeikan, a hotel mixing Japanese and European styles (from History of Tokyo)
Image 46Asakusa (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 47Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower viewed from Odaiba (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 48Koreans in Japan about to be stabbed by Japanese vigilantes with bamboo spears immediately after the earthquake (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 50A 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 51A jar from the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) found in Kugahara, Ōta (from History of Tokyo)
Image 52A painting of the new Tokyo Imperial Palace (from History of Tokyo)
Image 53Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from History of Tokyo)
Image 54The Nikkei 225 stock market index from 1970 to 2024 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 55The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku in 1982, before police cracked down on its illegal activities (from History of Tokyo)
Image 56Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet during his second visit to Tokyo in 1854 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 57Shibuya (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 58A 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)

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... that the women's wheelchair race at the 2021 Tokyo Marathon featured just two competitors?
... that Japanese pianist Nagaoka Nobuko, a child prodigy called an "absolute genius", was killed in the final American firebombing of Tokyo?
... that Satoko Kishimoto is the first elected female mayor of Suginami, Tokyo?
... that pianist Fujita Haruko, one of the first 19 female students enrolled at the University of Tokyo, was taught by Leo Sirota, who was once called the "god of piano"?
... 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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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