Travel Japan - Tokyo

Tokyo is the home to the Japanese government and emperor, and so the Capital of Japan. It is also the nation's most populous urban area (12 million people, or about 10 percent of the country's population, live in Tokyo) and one of the 47 prefectures of Japan.

Tokyo is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. Its borders extend to outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean, some as far as 1,000 km south of the mainland.

Influence

As the nation's center of politics, business, finance, education, mass media, and pop culture, Tokyo has Japan's highest concentration of corporate headquarters, financial institutions, universities and colleges, museums, theaters, and shopping and entertainment establishments. It boasts a highly-developed public transportation system with numerous train and subway lines.

This extreme concentration is both boon and bane, prompting an ongoing debate over moving the nation's capital to another region. There is also great fear of a catastrophic earthquake striking Tokyo, which may in effect cripple the entire nation. Nevertheless, Tokyo continues to draw people from across Japan and other countries; a substantial portion of the population is not native to the region, and Tokyo is still a place to meet people from all over the country and the world. Tokyo is generally considered one of the world's four most prominent "Global cities" (alongside London, New York, and Paris).

Extent and Structure

Under Japanese law, Tokyo is designated as a "to" (often translated "metropolis"), not a city (although it is often mistaken for one), and its administrative structure is similar to that of Japan's other prefectures.

Within Tokyo lie dozens of cities, towns, and villages. It includes 23 special wards which until 1943 comprised the city of Tokyo but are now separate, self-governing municipalities, each with a mayor and a council, and having the status of a city. In addition to these 23 municipalities, Tokyo also encompasses 26 more cities, 5 towns, and 8 villages, each of which has a local government.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is headed by a publicly-elected governor and metropolitan assembly. Its headquarters are located in the ward of Shinjuku. Tokyo includes lakes, rivers, dams, farms, remote islands, and national parks, in addition to its famous neon jungle, skyscrapers and crowded subways.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tokyo".

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