The Tokyo Portal

Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū, Tokyo is unique among the prefectures, providing certain municipal services characteristic of a city, as defined by Japanese law.

Because it is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family, Tokyo is the de facto capital of Japan. The name Tokyo literally means eastern capital.

The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, although each administratively a city in its own right, constitute the area often incorrectly considered to be the "city" of Tokyo and, if they were a city, would collectively be one of the largest cities in the world with a total population of over 8 million people. The total population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million.

The Greater Tokyo Area, centered on Tokyo but also including Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 35 million people. It has been the world's most populous urban area since between 1965 and 1970, and despite Japan's overall declining population, is still growing.

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Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the kami (spirits) of soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of Imperial Japan, particularly to those killed in wartime. The shrine is a source of considerable controversy. Of the almost 2.5 million enshrined, 1,068 have been convicted of war crimes by a post World War II court, including 14 Class-A war criminals ("crime against peace"). The Yūshūkan—a shrine-owned history museum—has been accused of revisionism in its accounts of Japan's actions in World War II, as well as glorification of Japan's aggressive militaristic past. Visits to the shrine by Japanese Cabinet members and Prime Ministers, in particular, have been the cause of protests at home as well as abroad. People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Republic of China (Taiwan) have protested against various visits since 1985.

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Credit: Underwood & Underwood

Looking north down a street in Ginza, the most important thoroughfare in Tokyo, Japan, c.1904.

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You are invited to participate in 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.

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Did you know...

• ... that the arcade game Heiankyo Alien was originally designed as a personal computer game by the University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group?
• ...that the most recent of the six different methods of total synthesis of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel, a drug originally derived from the rare Pacific Yew, was developed at the Tokyo University of Science in 1999?
• ...that in the peak days of Iranian migration to Japan, Iran Air flights to Tokyo were fully booked several years in advance?
• ...that although the first meeting of the Indian Independence League took place in Tokyo in March 1942, it was not formally proclaimed until June of that year in Bangkok?

  

• ...that the First Tokyo Middle School (pictured), one of the top public secondary schools in Japan, expelled all of its Korean international students in 1905 when they demonstrated against the Eulsa Treaty between Japan and Korea?
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