Tokyo is a unique subnational administrative region of Japan with characteristics of both a prefecture and a city. It is the de facto capital of Japan,[1] the most populous subnational entity and city in the country, and the center of the most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 35 million people in the Greater Tokyo Area.[2] Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, although each administratively a city in its own right, comprise the area informally considered as the "city of Tokyo" and are collectively one of the largest cities in the world with a total population of over 8 million people.[3] Tokyo has the largest metropolitan gross domestic product in the world for a city, and it held the title of the world's most expensive city for over a decade from 1992 through 2005.[4]
Prior to 1943, Tokyo was the name of both one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, Tokyo-fu, and the populous city of Tokyo in the eastern half of the prefecture. In 1943 the city and prefecture were merged into a unique prefecture-level government entity, known as Tōkyō-to 東京都 or "Tokyo Metropolis". This administrative region includes the twenty-three "special wards" of the former city, many suburban cities in the western half of the prefecture, and two chains of islands extending south into the Pacific Ocean. Over 12 million people, 10 percent of Japan's population, live within Tokyo Metropolis's prefecture boundaries.
Tokyo is considered one of the world's major global cities and a megacity. The word "Tokyo" may refer to Tokyo Metropolis as a whole, or only to the main urban mass under its jurisdiction (thus excluding west Tama and Izu / Ogasawara Islands), or even the whole of Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Yamanashi prefectures, depending on context. This article refers to Tokyo Metropolis unless otherwise stated. |
