Portal:Tokyo

The Tokyo Portal

View of Shinjuku skyscrapers and Mount Fuji as seen from the Bunkyo Civic Center in Tokyo

Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis is the capital and most populous city of Japan. The population of the city proper was over 14 million as of 2023. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring prefectures, is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 33 million residents as of 2025.

Lying at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region, on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. It is Japan's economic center and the seat of 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.

Tokyo, originally known as Edo, rose to political prominence in 1603 when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, and by the mid-18th century, Edo had evolved from a small fishing village into one of the largest cities in the world, with a population surpassing one million. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo (lit. 'Eastern Capital'). Tokyo was greatly damaged by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and 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 2025, Tokyo is home to 26 of the world's 500 largest companies, as listed in the annual Fortune Global 500. (Full article...)

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Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's special wards

The 23 special wards (特別区, tokubetsu-ku) of Tokyo are a unique form of municipality under Japan's 1947 Local Autonomy Law. They are city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy. Together, they cover 627 km² (242 sq mi) and, as of 2024, house roughly 9.8 million residents, yielding a density of about 15,742 people/km² (40,770 people/mi²). Similar ward systems are legally possible in other prefectures, but none have been established.

Tokyo's 23 special wards unite with 39 ordinary municipalities (cities, towns and villages) to their west to form the Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture. Without the ordinary municipalities, the special wards account for what was the core Tokyo City, before it was abolished in 1943 under the Tōjō Cabinet. It was four years later, during the Occupation of Japan, that autonomy was restored to Tokyo City by means of the special wards, each being given a directly elected mayor and assembly like all other cities, towns and villages in Japan. (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 (southern half).

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 1Police officers and Japan Defense Force troops responding to the scene of the 1995 subway sarin attack (from History of Tokyo)
Image 2The funeral procession for Hirohito (by then renamed Showa) on 24 February 1989 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 3Shinjuku (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 4A 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 5A section of the Tamagawa Josui in an 1856 painting by Hiroshige (from History of Tokyo)
Image 6A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 7Hokusai's painting of the 47 ronin storming Kira Yoshinaka's mansion (from History of Tokyo)
Image 8Tokyo Haneda Airport (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 9This 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 10Tokyo Skytree, Sumida (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 11An 1814 handscroll depicting the Great Fire of Meireki (from History of Tokyo)
Image 12A protest against the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty around the National Diet building on 18 June 1960 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 13Asakusa (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 14A 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 15An 1869 picture scroll of the 1772 Great Meiwa Fire (from History of Tokyo)
Image 16This marker in Nihonbashi is the place from which distances along highways are reckoned. (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 17A kawaraban (news broadsheet) depicting the damage of the 1855 earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 18A German map of Tokyo from 1896 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 19Soil liquefaction in Kōtō after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 20Emperor Meiji, moving from Kyoto to Tokyo after the fall of Edo in 1868 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 21Ōta Dokan, who built the start to Edo Castle (from History of Tokyo)
Image 22An 1809 etched print of the Senso-ji temple, before it was firebombed during World War II and rebuilt (from History of Tokyo)
Image 23Tokyo from the air after the firebombing of the city, 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 24Toei bus (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 25A jar from the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) found in Kugahara, Ōta (from History of Tokyo)
Image 26The Tokyo Skytree in 2014 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 27A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 28Marunouchi (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 29The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku in 1982, before police cracked down on its illegal activities (from History of Tokyo)
Image 30The Kasumigaseki Building in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda (from History of Tokyo)
Image 31Rokumeikan, a club mixing Japanese and European styles (from History of Tokyo)
Image 32JR Yamanote Line (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 33A 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 34Otoya Yamaguchi preparing to stab Inejiro Asanuma a second time at the Hibiya Public Hall on 13 January 1960 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 35Commodore Matthew C. Perry's fleet during his second visit to Tokyo in 1854 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 36The Ginza Line, Asia's oldest subway line, first opened in 1927 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 37Japanese children living in the ruins of Tokyo in 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
Image 38Ginza (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 39The 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 40Map of operators in Greater Tokyo Area (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 41Tokyo-Wan Ferry Shirahama-maru (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 42Toyota Crown Comfort Nihon Kotsu Taxi (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 43Tokyo streets at night (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 44Shibuya (from Special wards of Tokyo)
Image 45Taira no Masakado, who challenged the Emperor by becoming the effective ruler of Kanto (from History of Tokyo)
Image 46Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from History of Tokyo)
Image 47A scene of the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, where 1,824 drones formed the 2020 Games' logo (from History of Tokyo)
Image 48A painting of the new Tokyo Imperial Palace (from History of Tokyo)
Image 49The 1964 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on 24 October (from History of Tokyo)
Image 50Tokyo Imperial University's law building before 1902 (from History of Tokyo)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

... that Japan's oldest expressway is intended to be transformed into a park?
... that a haniwa horse in Tokyo National Museum is of particular significance due to its horse trappings?
... that the first modern Chinese play was based on an American novel and staged in Tokyo?
... 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 Makoto Nishimoto tried to run in the 2020 Tokyo gubernatorial election as his nickname "Super Crazy-kun"?
... that Izawa Takushi is called the "Quiz King from Tokyo University"?

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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