Tokyo

I

Introduction

Tokyo, capital of Japan and the most populated metropolitan area in the world, with more than 35 million inhabitants in 2003. Tokyo is located at the head of Tokyo Bay, midway along the eastern coast of Honshū, the largest of the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago. The city occupies most of the southern part of the Kantō Plain, the largest area of flat land in Japan. Tokyo has been the capital of Japan since 1868, after the Tokugawa dynasty (1603-1867), which ruled from Kyōto, was overthrown. At that time the city’s name was changed from Edo to Tokyo, which means “eastern capital.” Today Tokyo is Japan’s financial, industrial, commercial, educational, and cultural center; it is also the country’s principal contact point for trade and diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

II

Tokyo and Its Metropolitan Area

Technically, there is no such thing as a city of Tokyo, as that designation was abolished in a government reorganization in 1943. Instead, Tokyo is a special administrative unit similar to a prefecture, the largest units of local government in Japan. It is properly called Tōkyō-to or Tokyo Metropolis and consists of 23 special wards (ku), 26 cities (shi), seven towns, and eight villages. Tokyo Metropolis covers an area of about 2180 sq km (about 840 sq mi). The 23 wards, which comprise the area that used to be the city of Tokyo, cover about 620 sq km (about 240 sq mi). The rest of Tokyo Metropolis is the Tama district, a large suburban area stretching to mountains in the west, and two chains of small islands, the Izu Islands (Japanese Izu-Shichito) and the Bonin Islands (Japanese Ogasawara-Gunto), to the south in the Pacific Ocean. The Keihin Industrial Region is a term used to describe Tokyo and the surrounding industrial area, referring most specifically to the combination of Tokyo and two nearby coastal cities to the south, Kawasaki and Yokohama.

The heart of Tokyo is the Imperial Palace and its surrounding grounds. This is where the emperor of Japan lives with his family, and where Edo Castle, the fortress associated with the founding of the city, once stood. To the south and west of the Imperial Palace, in the Kasumigaseki district, are most of Tokyo’s important government buildings, such as the National Diet Building (seat of the national legislature), the offices of the prime minister, the Supreme Court, and the national ministries. Farther to the south is Tokyo Tower, which is 333 m (1,093 ft) high and resembles the Eiffel Tower; it was built in 1958 for communications and observation. To the east of the Imperial Palace is the Marunouchi district, the leading business district. Many of Japan’s largest enterprises and financial institutions have headquarters here. The district’s importance became notable after the Tokyo Central Station opened nearby in 1914. To the east of Marunouchi is Tokyo’s most important shopping district, which extends from the Nihonbashi district in the north, to the Ginza district, famous for its retail and entertainment establishments, in the south. The streets of these districts are lined with many department stores, long-established specialty shops, and other businesses. To the north of the Imperial Palace is Jimbocho, a quarter with many bookshops. Tokyo Dome, a modern sports and concerts facility, is to the north of Jimbocho in Bunkyo Ward.

To the west of the central city the terrain becomes increasingly hilly, rising to the Musashino Plateau. The eastern edge of the Musashino Plateau , called yamanote, has retained much of its well-to-do residential character. There are many foreign embassies, prestigious universities, hospitals, and other important institutions in this area, as well as Yoyogi Park, the Meiji Shrine and its grounds, and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens. The largest and most prosperous of Tokyo’s major commercial subcenters, Shinjuku, Sakurakabu , and Ikebukuro, are in this area. At 48 stories and 243 m (797 ft) tall, the Number One Building of Tokyo’s new metropolitan government headquarters in Shinjuku is the tallest building in the metropolis. Other notable places on the west side are the nightclub district of Roppongi, the high-fashion districts of Aoyama and Harajuku, and the Yebisu Garden Place in Ebisu, an elegant commercial complex that opened in 1994 at the site of an old brewery. Further to the west is the Tama district, a broad expanse of residential communities, including Tama New Town, a planned housing development that is expected to reach a population of about 300,000. Near the western margins of Tokyo Metropolis is Chichibu-Tama National Park, a scenic mountain area.

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The historic districts of Tokyo are mainly to the north and east of the Imperial Palace. In contrast to the more hilly Yamanote, much of this area is called shitamachi (the “low city”), and is the site of the crowded quarters of historic Edo. Kanda is one such district, now known for its many publishing companies, schools and colleges, and residences for students. The Kanda Shrine, one of the oldest in the city, holds a major festival every other year that celebrates the traditional way of life in the city. The Akihabara district nearby is noted as an emporium for Japanese-made electronic goods. Farther to the northeast is Asakusa, a district that developed around an historic temple called Sensoji, or Asakusa Kannon. The district thrived as an entertainment zone from the mid-18th to the early 20th centuries. Today Asakusa continues to attract worshipers to the temple, as well as many shoppers and tourists. Not far away is the commercial center at Ueno and Ueno Park. Beyond the park, the narrow lanes of the Nezu and Yanaka districts preserve the character of the old city’s residential quarters.

III

Economy

Tokyo has an enormous economy, with about 800,000 businesses of all kinds and 8 million workers. Service industries, including wholesale and retail trade, finance, and insurance, made up the largest sector of the economy; services accounted for 72 percent of Tokyo’s labor force in 1990. Secondary industries ranked second, with 27.5 percent of the labor force. Manufacturing dominates the secondary industries category and comprises about 20 percent of Tokyo’s total labor force. Jobs in transportation account for most of the other secondary employment. Primary industries, such as fishing and agriculture, made up 0.5 percent of the economy. The long-term trend is a decline in manufacturing (which employed almost one-third of the labor force in 1970) and greater emphasis on services. Tokyo is especially important as the headquarters for most private companies in Japan, as well as the nation’s center for finance, government, communications, and education. It also has the highest concentration of foreign companies doing business in Japan.

The focus of Tokyo’s service economy is its downtown central business district. This district is fairly large, with many office buildings and businesses located near the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It covers much of the city’s three central wards, Chūō, Chiyoda, and Minato. Many of Japan’s largest manufacturing corporations, financial institutions, and other companies are headquartered here, as are the Japanese offices of many foreign companies. The Marunouchi district in Chūō Ward is especially notable as a concentration of company offices, while the famous Ginza area, also in Chūō Ward, is known for its department stores, specialty shops, art galleries, and many fine restaurants. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is in a district of Chūō Ward called Kabutocho. There are other important commercial centers outside the central business district at key interchanges of commuter rail lines. The largest of these so-called subcenters is Shinjuku, located on the west side of the heart of the city in Shinjuku Ward. Most of Tokyo’s tallest buildings are located here in a planned district of office and hotel towers called New Shinjuku City Center. The offices of Tokyo Metropolitan Government (the equivalent of City Hall) moved to this district from Chūō Ward in 1991. Other important subcenters include Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Ueno.

The city’s largest manufacturing establishments are concentrated along the shores of Tokyo Bay. Here, extending from Tokyo to Yokohama, is the Keihin Industrial Region, the largest industrial complex in Japan. This district produces nearly one-fifth of the nation’s total manufactured goods by value. It depends heavily on imported raw materials, and includes sprawling steel mills and shipyards, oil refineries, petrochemical manufacturers, and various assembly plants. There are many different products, including steel, chemicals, machinery, lumber, textiles, cameras and optical goods, electronic equipment, food products, and a wide variety of other consumer goods. There is also considerable manufacturing near the heart of Tokyo, particularly in older sections of the city close to the Sumida River. Manufacturing plants in the urban center are mostly small. In 1985 about 46 percent of the more than 93,000 manufacturing plants in Tokyo Metropolis employed only one to three people, while an additional 36 percent of factories had only four to nine workers. The largest category of manufacturing in Tokyo is printing and publishing, accounting for about 20 percent of all factories in the metropolis and nearly 22 percent of the manufacturing labor force.

The port of Tokyo has expanded tremendously in recent years and is now the second largest in Japan (after Yokohama) in value of trade. In 1993 it accounted for approximately 14 percent of all trade by Japan’s ports. Reasons for the port’s growth include the deepening of sea lanes in Tokyo Bay, large reclamation projects to create room for new facilities and container terminals, and improvements to storage and distribution facilities. The largest categories of exports from the port of Tokyo are machinery, automotive parts, and chemical products. Imports include lumber, machinery, fruits and vegetables, processed foods and beverages, and marine products. Much of Tokyo’s trade also goes through the port of Yokohama. That city has a better natural harbor and was developed after 1858 for the specific purpose of serving Tokyo with foreign trade.

The first rail line in Tokyo (and in Japan) was constructed in 1872 to connect the city with the port of Yokohama. Since then freight and passenger rail networks have grown enormously, and Tokyo has emerged as the national hub for both. A high-speed passenger rail system known as the shinkansen was inaugurated in 1964. It is often referred to as the “bullet train” because of the speed and the shape of the locomotive. The first line connected Tokyo with Ōsaka. The line now extends southwest to Hakata on the island of Kyūshū, and is known as the Tōkaidō-San’yō Shinkansen. In 1982 the Tohoku Shinkansen and Jōetsu Shinkansen were opened to Morioka in northern Japan and Niigata on the Sea of Japan (East Sea) coast, respectively.

Rail and subway lines are extremely important in Tokyo commuting patterns. Some lines are privately owned, such as Keio and Odakyu, while some are operated by branches of Japan Railways and the Tokyo government. In the 23 wards alone, about 27 million passengers use mass transit each day. Tokyo Station, in Chūō Ward, is the city’s central station for commuters and intercity shinkansen traffic. It handles some 2500 trains each day and more than 700,000 passengers. Many other train and subway stations, in addition to bus routes and taxis, serve the downtown as well. Tokyo’s busiest station is Shinjuku Station at a key rail interchange on the west side of the city. It handles more than 3 million passengers each day. Trains are notoriously crowded, especially during morning rush hours, and are often filled to more than double their capacity. White-gloved “pushers” are employed to patrol the platforms and shove riders inside jam-packed trains before doors close. The Yamanote Line is Tokyo’s most crowded. It forms a loop around the inner part of the city and connects 29 stations, including both Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station, along its 34.5-km (22-mi), 60-minute run.

Much of the street pattern of Tokyo dates to historic times and is made of narrow, crooked lanes that are unsuitable for heavy use by automobiles. The radiating highways and expressways that were put in to modernize the road network are usually badly overcrowded, and traffic moves at a slow pace. Parking is a major problem. A person must provide proof of an off-street, overnight parking space to own a car in Tokyo.

Tokyo’s major airport is the New Tokyo International Airport, also called Narita Airport. It is located about 65 km (about 40 mi) east of Tokyo in the city of Narita, Chiba Prefecture. It opened in May 1978 as a replacement for the overcrowded Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport). Narita Airport is reached by two railways, the Narita Line and the Keisei Line, as well as limousine bus service. More than 20 million passengers use this airport each year. Narita is also important as an air freight port, particularly for imports of fresh foods, magazines, and newspapers. Haneda Airport, located along Tokyo Bay south of downtown Tokyo, is the city’s primary airport for domestic travel.

Tokyo Metropolis is the media and communications center of Japan. By the late 1980s the city included many of Japan’s media and communications businesses, despite having only about 10 percent of the country’s population. In the early 1990s some 2,400 monthly and weekly periodicals were being published in Tokyo. Moreover, there are eight general newspapers published in the city, as well as three economic and industrial newspapers and seven sports newspapers. The newspapers with the largest circulations are Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Asahi Shimbun. Tokyo is also the origin of most television and radio programming in Japan. In 1990 Tokyo had more telephone lines than any other city in the world.

IV

Population

The 23 special wards that make up what is considered Tokyo proper had an estimated population of 8,273,907 in 2006. Tokyo Metropolis extends to the west of the central city and has a population of 12,273,376 (2006); it is one of the largest urban areas in the world.

Crowding is a serious problem, particularly in the 23 wards and close suburbs. In Tokyo Metropolis the population density is 5,443 persons per sq km (14,097 per sq mi), while in the 23 wards the density is 13,000 persons per sq km (33,670 per sq mi). By contrast, the average density for Japan as whole, itself a crowded country in comparison to other countries, is 328 persons per sq km (850 per sq mi). Problems that relate to crowding include traffic congestion, high land prices and rents, air and noise pollution, lack of open space and greenery, and blocked access to direct sunlight in areas of high-rise construction.

Because it is the nation’s capital and economic center, Tokyo attracts migrants from all parts of Japan. The number of young migrants is particularly large because they come to Tokyo to attend a college or university and often stay to begin working careers. Tokyo also has many migrants who come for jobs immediately after finishing secondary school. Only about 2 percent of the population is non-Japanese. The largest foreign groups are Koreans, which account for about one-half of all foreigners, Chinese, Americans, and Filipinos. Although the foreign population is a small percentage of the total, it exceeds 250,000 and is growing. The number of guest workers from developing Asian nations such as the Philippines, Iran, and Bangladesh grew especially quickly during the 1980s and early 1990s, both from legal migration and undocumented workers. The growing foreign population reflects expansion of Tokyo’s role as a global economic hub.

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