According to abbreviationfinder, Tokyo is the capital of Japan , on Honshū , on the inner Tokyo Bay (Tōkyō-wan) of the Pacific Ocean, consisting of 23 urban districts (Ku) with a total of 622 km ² area and (2018) 9.6 million residents.

The Tokyo Prefecture (Tōkyō-to), which has a special status and covers 2 191 km ² with (2018) 13.8 million residents, includes numerous other cities in addition to the capital, including Hachiōji, Machida, Fuchū, Chōfu, Mitaka, Hino, Kodaira, Tachikawa and Musashino, as well as islands in the Pacific (with a total of 403 km ²), especially Ōshima and the Bonin Islands around 1,000 km away. Another 24 million people live in the Kantō plain around Tokyo; Tokyo is therefore the core of a megacity with 37.6 million residents and a population density of around 2,770 residents per km ².

Cultural institutions

The political, cultural and economic life of Japan is centered on Tokyo. Tokyo is the residence (since 1869) of the emperor (Tenno) and the seat of parliament and government, including a Catholic archbishop. Educational institutions include the University of Tokyo (founded in 1877) and seven other state universities, as well as 29 private universities and colleges. The city is the seat of the Japanese Academy of Sciences (Nippon Gakushiin, founded 1879) and the Japanese Science Council (Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi, founded 1949), which coordinates research projects nationwide. Many research institutions have been concentrated in Tsukuba outside Tokyo since the 1960s.

There are national theaters and many museums in Tokyo, including the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park alone (archaeological finds, including Haniwa; Japanese art up to the Meij period, including art treasures from the Hōryūji ; Art from India, China, Korea), the Tokyo Municipal Art Museum (Tōkyō-to Bijutsukan; works by contemporary Japanese artists), the Tokyo University Museum of Fine Arts and Music, the National Museum of Western Art (mainly French paintings and sculptures by the 19th – 20th centuries) and the National Museum of Science and Technology; in addition, the National Museum of Modern Art, the Japanese Museum of Applied Arts, the Japanese Folk Art Museum, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, the Bridgestone, Gotō, Idemitsu and Nezu Art Museums. There are also concert halls, “Tōkyō Opera City” (with opera, theater, concert halls, museum for media art, etc.), a planetarium, an aquarium, botanical and zoological gardens and “Tōkyō Disneyland” (on Tokyo Bay, opened 1983).

Economy and Transport

Tokyo is the economic focus of Japan and a densely populated industrial region (Keihin and Keiyō) that extends far beyond Tokyo Prefecture and surrounds the inner Tokyo Bay from the three million city of Yokohama via Tokyo to Chiba and extends in the western Kantō plain. After New York is Tokyo, among other things. with the Tokyo Stock Exchange , one of the most important financial centers in the world. Leading Japanese commercial companies have their headquarters here. The main branches of industry are electronics, mechanical engineering, metal, food and printing industries (Tokyo is Japan’s leading press and publishing center). The most important exhibition center in the city is that of Harumi (at the harbor); outside Tokyo, that of Makuhari was created in 1989 (on Tokyo Bay between Funabashi and Chiba).

Tokyo is the main hub in the Japanese transport network. Railways with high-speed trains (Shinkansen) connect Tokyo with Kyūshū (Tōkaidō), with Niigata on the Sea of ​​Japan and with Hachinohe. Expressways radiate out from Tokyo, the important Tōmei expressway to Nagoya (348 km) was opened to traffic in 1969. The major international airport (New Tokyo International Airport) in Narita, 65 km east of Tokyo, opened in 1978. Haneda domestic airport is located on the south-western outskirts of the city. The port on Tokyo Bay, the site of which was expanded from 1966 onwards, has developed into an important container transshipment port. – The main means of transport within the city, into which several million commuters flow every day, is the subway, the network of which (route length 315 km) is still being expanded.

The city highways that have been in existence since the 1960s lead across the main roads on pillars. In rush hour traffic, the trains of the subway as well as the state and private suburban railways are always overcrowded and the streets are clogged despite the close sequence of trains. Over the past few decades, the conurbation problems in Tokyo have repeatedly led to the discussion of relocating the functions of the capital. In 1997 the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, a combination of a 9.4 km long submarine road tunnel and a 4.4 km long bridge, opened. This means that users can cross under Tokyo Bay in around 15 minutes.