Portal:Tokyo

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The Tokyo Portal

Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital city 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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Shinjuku (Japanese: 新宿区, Hepburn: Shinjuku-ku, IPA: [ɕiɲdʑɯkɯ] ^ⓘ), officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administrative center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. As of 2018^[update], the ward has an estimated population of 346,235 and a population density of 18,232 people per km². The total area is 18.23 km². Since the end of World War II, Shinjuku has become a major secondary center of Tokyo (fukutoshin), rivaling the original city center in Marunouchi.

"Shinjuku" is also commonly used to refer to the entire area surrounding [ja] Shinjuku Station. The southern half of this area and majority of the station are in fact located in the neighboring Shibuya ward. (Full article...)

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Shibuya (渋谷区, Shibuya-ku, IPA: [ɕibɯja] ) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station and Shinjuku Station.

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 1Picture 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 2Tokyo's 23 special wards, one part of the Tokyo Metropolis prefecture (from History of Tokyo)
Image 3A painting of the new Tokyo Imperial Palace (from History of Tokyo)
Image 4A jar from the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) found in Kugahara, Ōta (from History of Tokyo)
Image 5Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower viewed from Odaiba (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 6Tokyo from the air after the firebombing of the city, 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 7JR Yamanote Line (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 8Marunouchi (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 9Japan Defense Force chemical troops responding to the scene of the 1995 subway sarin attack, at mid-day (from History of Tokyo)
Image 10An 1814 handscroll depicting the Great Fire of Meireki (from History of Tokyo)
Image 11The Shintomi-za theater, as painted by Utagawa Hiroshige III in 1881 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 12Funeral procession for Hirohito (by then renamed Showa) on 24 February 1989 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 13The Nikkei 225 stock market index from 1970 to 2024 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 14The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku in 1982, before police cracked down on its illegal activities (from History of Tokyo)
Image 15An 1869 picture scroll of the 1772 Great Meiwa Fire (from History of Tokyo)
Image 16Tokyo Imperial University's law building before 1902 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 17An 1809 etched print of the Senso-ji temple, before it was firebombed during World War II and rebuilt (from History of Tokyo)
Image 18A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 19The Metropolitan Police Department burning at Marunouchi, near Hibiya Park during the 1923 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 20A German map of Tokyo from 1896 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 211960 protests against the United States-Japan Security Treaty (from History of Tokyo)
Image 22Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara in 2003 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 23Tokyo-Wan Ferry Shirahama-maru (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 24Taira no Masakado, who challenged the Emperor by becoming the effective ruler of Kanto (from History of Tokyo)
Image 25The 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 26Asakusa (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 27Rokumeikan, a club mixing Japanese and European styles (from History of Tokyo)
Image 28Map of operators in Greater Tokyo Area (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 29A section of the Tamagawa Josui in an 1856 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 30Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet during his second visit to Tokyo in 1854 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 31Yukio Mishima giving a speech during his 1970 coup attempt at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force building (from History of Tokyo)
Image 32Shibuya (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 33Soil liquefaction in Kōtō after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (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 35Ginza (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 36Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from History of Tokyo)
Image 37The Ginza Line, Asia's oldest subway line, first opened in 1927 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 38The 1964 Summer Olympics closing ceremony (from History of Tokyo)
Image 39A view of the IMTFE in session (from History of Tokyo)
Image 40This marker in Nihonbashi is the place from which distances along highways are reckoned. (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 41This 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 42A 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 43Hokusai's painting of the 47 ronin storming Kira Yoshinaka's mansion (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 45Tokyo streets at night (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 46A 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 47Ōta Dokan, who built the start to Edo Castle (from History of Tokyo)
Image 48Emperor Meiji, moving from Kyoto to Tokyo after the fall of Edo in 1868 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 49A 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 50Nihonbashi Bridge, in a c. 1838–1842 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 51Tokyo Haneda Airport (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 52The Tokyo Skytree in 2014 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 53Otoya Yamaguchi preparing to stab Inejiro Asanuma a second time (from History of Tokyo)
Image 54A kawaraban (news broadsheet) depicting the damage of the 1855 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 55A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 56Shinjuku (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 57Toei bus (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)

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

... 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 modern Chinese play was based on an American novel and staged in Tokyo?
... that the women's wheelchair race at the 2021 Tokyo Marathon featured just two competitors?
... 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?
... 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