Tokyo (/ˈtoʊkioʊ/; Japanese: 東京, Tōkyō, [toːkʲoː]ⓘ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to), is the capital city of Japan and one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over 14 million residents as of 2023. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and nearby six prefectures, is the most-populous metropolitan area in the world, with 40.8 million residents . Tokyo's nominal gross domestic output was 113.7 trillion yen or US$1.04 trillion in FY2021 and accounted for 20.7% of the country's total economic output, which converts to 8.07 million yen or US$73,820 per capita. Including the Greater Tokyo Area, Tokyo is the second-largest metropolitan economy in the world after New York, with a 2022 gross metropolitan product estimated at US$2.08 trillion.
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 recognising 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 behind that of the United States. , the city is home to 29 of the world's largest 500 companies listed in the annual Fortune Global 500. (Full article...)
The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (TYO: 8697), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of JPX. JPX was formed from merger of Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. with Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. (now Osaka Exchange, Inc.); the merger process began in July 2012, when said merger was approved by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. JPX itself was launched on January 1, 2013. (Full article...)
Image 12The 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 13Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from History of Tokyo)
Image 15A 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 40Picture 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)
... that Paralympian Gemma Collis-McCann, who sits on wheelchair fencing's new Gender Equity Commission, has been chosen to join three men as the UK's wheelchair fencing team in Tokyo?
... that the women's wheelchair race at the 2021 Tokyo Marathon featured just two competitors?
... 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?
