Tokyo

Tokyo  officially Tokyo Metropolis(東京都,Tōkyō-to^?),^[4] is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan.^[5] Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area in the world.^[6] It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands.^[7] Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府,Tōkyō-fu^?) and the city of Tokyo(東京市,Tōkyō-shi^?).

 

Tokyo is often thought of as a city but is commonly referred to as a "metropolitan prefecture". The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo (each governed as an individual city), which cover the area that was formerly the City of Tokyo before it merged and became the subsequent metropolitan prefecture. The metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 9 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 35 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity, ahead of the New York metropolitan area in 2008. The city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city.^[8]

 

Tokyo has been described as one of the three "command centres" for the world economy, along with New York City and London.^[9] The city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC's 2008 inventory^[10] and ranked fourth among global cities by A.T. Kearney's 2012 Global Cities Index.^[11] In 2012, Tokyo was named the most expensive city for expatriates, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys,^[12] and in 2009 named the third Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine Monocle.^[13] The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world.^[14][15] Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics

 

Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo,^[7] in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province.^[21] Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the late twelfth century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the centre of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century.^[22] Tokyo became the de factocapital of Japan^[23] even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule.

In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation's political and cultural centre,^[24] and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well, with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established. Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about 1900 to be centered on major railway stations in a high-density fashion, so suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level and with their own right-of-way. This differs from many cities in the United States that are low-density and automobile-centric. Though expressways have been built in Tokyo, the basic design has not changed. Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century, but it recovered from both. One was the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, which left 140,000 dead or missing,^[25] and the other was World War II.

In 1943, the city of Tokyo merged with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo. The Bombing of Tokyo in 1944 and 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and half of the city destroyed, was almost as devastating as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.^[26]After the war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt, and was showcased to the world during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60, a new and controversial^[27]airport at Narita in 1978 (some distance outside city limits), and a population increase to about 11 million (in the metropolitan area). Tokyo's subway and commuter rail network became one of the busiest in the world^[28] as more and more people moved to the area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during a real estate and debt bubble.

 

The bubble burst in the early 1990s, and many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with mortgage backed debts while real estate was shrinking in value. A major recession followed, making the 1990s Japan's "Lost Decade"^[29] from which it is now slowly recovering. Tokyo still sees new urban developments on large lots of less profitable land. Recent projects include Ebisu Garden Place, Tennozu Isle, Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Shinagawa (now also a Shinkansen station), and the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Buildings of significance are demolished for more up-to-date shopping facilities such as Omotesando Hills.

The former city of Tokyo and the majority of mainland Tokyo lie in the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen climate classificationCfa),^[45] with hot humid summers and generally mild winters with cool spells. The region, like much of Japan, experiences a one-month seasonal lag, with the warmest month being August, which averages 27.5 °C(81.5 °F), and the coolest month being January, averaging 6.0 °C(42.8 °F). The record low temperature is −9.2 °C(15.4 °F), and the record high is 39.5 °C(103.1 °F), though there was once an unofficial reading of 42.7 °C(108.9 °F) at the Primary School Station.^[46] Annual rainfall averages nearly 1,530 millimetres (60.2 in), with a wetter summer and a drier winter. Snowfall is sporadic, but does occur almost annually.^[47] Tokyo also often sees typhoons each year, though few are strong. The last one to hit was Fitow in 2007,^[48] while the wettest month since records began in 1876 has been October 2004 with 780 millimetres (30 in)^[49] including 270.5 millimetres (10.6 in) on the ninth of that month.^[50]. ^[16]