Tokyo

Tokyo (in Japanese东京, 'the eastern capital "in opposition to the ancient capital, Kyoto, situated in the west) is the capital of Japan. Tokyo has two International Airports, Tokyo (Narita Airport) and Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport).

Before the Meiji Restoration, the city was known as Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 with Edo as the capital of government (the real capital of Japan was then Kyoto). In 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed Tokyo, meaning Eastern Capital. During the restoration, the emperor moved to Tokyo, making it the official capital of Japan. A large earthquake occurred on Tokyo in 1923, killing about 70,000 people. After the tragedy started a reconstruction plan, but it was too expensive to complete. Despite this, the city continued its development until the beginning of the Second World War. During the war, Tokyo was heavily bombed, 1940-1945 reducing the population by half. General Douglas MacArthur established the headquarters of the occupation in what is now the Dai-Ichi Seimei building overlooking the Imperial Palace. A Despite the recession of the 1990s, Tokyo has become one of the most dynamic cities in the world. It has a wide range of social and economic activity. The boom in investment in the late 80s is probably the largest ever known in history and as a result, Tokyo now has a number of modern buildings much larger than London or New York. On 20 March 1995 the city became the focus of all the international media following the terrorist attack with Sarin nerve gas the cult Aum Shinrikyo in the subway system in Tokyo in which 12 people were killed and thousands affected.

Tokyo Today

Today the city of Tokyo is one of the major cities on the planet. It is one of the major financial centers as well as the political capital of Japan. It is unusual that the city has fewer skyscrapers than other cities of its size, mainly due to earthquake risk. On the other hand is made up mostly by low buildings of no more than 10 floors. Tokyo is also home to the most complex railway system in the world. Tokyo has three geographical distinctions in meaning. 1. Tokyo Prefecture is the local government in the name of Tokyo. A population of 12,064,101 inhabitants and a surface area of 2186.9 km ². 2. Although there is no town called Tokyo, Tokyo as it was known in 1943, is today the largest city and capital of Japan, with a population of 8,134,688 inhabitants and an area of 621.3 km ². 3. The metropolitan area of the southern Kanto region consisting Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, is often considered the largest area of Tokyo. The four prefectures together have a population of 33,418,366 inhabitants and an area of 13555.8 km ². The population and area are according to the census conducted in 2000.