Izu Ōshima (
Oshima Airport) have services to Tokyo International and other airports.
Rail is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world and an equally extensive network of surface lines.
JR East
The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...
operates Tokyo's largest railway network, including the
Yamanote Line loop that circles the center of downtown Tokyo. It operates rail lines in the entire metropolitan area of Tokyo and in the rest of the northeastern part of
Honshu
, historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...
. JR East is also responsible for
Shinkansen high-speed rail lines.
Two different organizations operate the subway network: the private
Tokyo Metro and the governmental
Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation. The Metropolitan Government and private carriers operate bus routes and one
tram route. Local, regional, and national services are available, with major terminals at the giant railroad stations, including
Tokyo,
Shinagawa, and
Shinjuku
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
.
Expressways link the capital to other points in the Greater Tokyo Area, the Kantō region, and the islands of
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...
and
Shikoku. To build them quickly before the
1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
, most were constructed above existing roads. Other transportation includes taxis operating in the special wards and the cities and towns. Also, long-distance ferries serve the islands of Tokyo and carry passengers and cargo to domestic and foreign ports.
Education
Tokyo has many universities, junior colleges, and vocational schools. Many of Japan's most prestigious universities are in Tokyo, including
University of Tokyo,
Hitotsubashi University,
Meiji University
, abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...
,
Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Waseda University,
Tokyo University of Science,
Sophia University, and
Keio University
, mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword
, type = Private research coeducational higher education institution
, established = 1858
, founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa
, endowmen ...
. Some of the biggest
national universities
A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state.
Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...
in Tokyo are:
*
Hitotsubashi University
*
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
*
Ochanomizu University
is a women's university in the Ōtsuka neighborhood of Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Ochanomizu University is one of the top national universities in Japan.
Ochanomizu is the name of a Tokyo neighborhood where the university was founded.
Hi ...
*
Tokyo Gakugei University
*
Tokyo Institute of Technology
*
Tokyo Medical and Dental University
is a Japanese national university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1928, it was the first national school of dentistry in Japan. TMDU is one of top 9 Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of Top Gl ...
*
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
*
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
*
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
, abbreviated as , is a national university in Japan. The main campus (Shinagawa Campus) is located in Minato, Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest c ...
*
Tokyo University of the Arts
*
University of Electro-Communications
*
University of Tokyo
There is only one non-national
public university:
Tokyo Metropolitan University. There are also a few universities well known for classes conducted in English and for the teaching of the Japanese language, including the
Globis University Graduate School of Management
, mottoeng = Visionary Leaders who Create and Innovate Societies
, established = 1992; gained University Status from 2006
, type = Private business school
, president = Yoshito Hori
, dean = Yoshi ...
,
International Christian University,
Sophia University, and
Waseda University
Tokyo is also the headquarters of the
United Nations University.
Most publicly run kindergartens, elementary schools (years 1 through 6), and junior high (lower secondary) schools (7 through 9) are operated by local wards or municipal offices. Most public senior high (upper secondary) schools in Tokyo are run by the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education and are called "Metropolitan High Schools". Tokyo also has many private schools from kindergarten through high school:
Culture
Tokyo has many museums. In
Ueno Park, there is the
Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum and specializing in traditional
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...
; the
National Museum of Western Art and
Ueno Zoo
The is a zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan's oldest zoo, opened on March 20, 1882. It is served by Ueno Station, Keisei Ueno Station and Nezu Station, with convenient access fro ...
. Other museums include the
National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
The , simply known as the , is a museum created by Japan's Science and Technology Agency.
It was opened in 2001. It is situated in a purpose-built building in the Odaiba District of Tokyo. It can be reached by the Yurikamome driverless fully au ...
in
Odaiba
today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded durin ...
; the
Edo-Tokyo Museum in
Sumida, across the
Sumida River
The is a river that flows through central Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi (in Kita-ku) and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers.
It passes through the Kita, Adachi, Arakaw ...
from the center of Tokyo; the
Nezu Museum in
Aoyama; and the
National Diet Library
The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...
, National Archives, and the
National Museum of Modern Art, which are near the
Imperial Palace.
Tokyo has many theaters for performing arts. These include national and private theaters for traditional forms of Japanese drama. Noteworthy are the
National Noh Theatre for
noh and the
Kabuki-za
in Ginza is the principal theater in Tokyo for the traditional ''kabuki'' drama form.
History
The Kabuki-za was originally opened by a Meiji era journalist, Fukuchi Gen'ichirō. Fukuchi wrote kabuki dramas in which Ichikawa Danjūrō IX and ot ...
for
Kabuki. Symphony orchestras and other musical organizations perform modern and traditional music. The
New National Theater Tokyo in
Shibuya is the national center for the performing arts, including opera, ballet, contemporary dance and drama.
Tokyo also hosts modern Japanese and international pop, and rock music at venues ranging in size from intimate clubs to internationally known areas such as the
Nippon Budokan
The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...
.
Many different
festivals occur throughout Tokyo. Major events include the Sannō at
Hie Shrine, the Sanja at
Asakusa Shrine, and the biennial
Kanda Festivals. The last features a parade with elaborately decorated floats and thousands of people. Annually on the last Saturday of July, an enormous
fireworks display over the
Sumida River
The is a river that flows through central Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi (in Kita-ku) and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers.
It passes through the Kita, Adachi, Arakaw ...
attracts over a million viewers. Once
cherry blossom
A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...
s bloom in spring, many residents gather in Ueno Park,
Inokashira Park
is a park which straddles Musashino and Mitaka in western Tokyo, Japan. Inokashira Pond (井の頭池) and the , established during the Edo period, are the primary sources of the Kanda River.
The land was given to Tokyo in 1913. On May 1, 191 ...
, and the
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for picnics under the blossoms.
Harajuku, a neighborhood in
Shibuya, is known internationally for its youth style, fashion
and
cosplay
Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...
.
Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed. In November 2007,
Michelin
Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...
released their first guide for fine dining in Tokyo, awarding 191 stars in total, or about twice as many as Tokyo's nearest competitor, Paris. As of 2017, 227 restaurants in Tokyo have been awarded (92 in Paris). Twelve establishments were awarded the maximum of three stars (Paris has 10), 54 received two stars, and 161 earned one star.
Sports
Tokyo, with a diverse array of sports, is home to two professional baseball clubs, the
Yomiuri Giants who play at the
Tokyo Dome and
Tokyo Yakult Swallows at
Meiji-Jingu Stadium. The
Japan Sumo Association is also headquartered in Tokyo at the
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
, also known as Ryōgoku Sumo Hall or Kokugikan Arena, is the name bestowed to two different indoor sporting arenas located in Tokyo. The fist ''Ryōgoku Kokugikan'' opened its doors in 1909 and was located on the lands of the Ekōin temple in Ry ...
sumo arena where three official
sumo
is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...
tournaments are held annually (in January, May, and September). Soccer clubs in Tokyo include
F.C. Tokyo
Football Club Tokyo, commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team is one of only four in the J.League to be simp ...
and
Tokyo Verdy 1969, both of which play at
Ajinomoto Stadium in
Chōfu
is a city in the western side of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 238,087, and a population density of 11,000 per km². the total area of the city is .
Geography
Chōfu is approximately in the south-center of ...
, and
FC Machida Zelvia
is a Japanese People, Japanese football (soccer), football club based in Machida, Tokyo, Machida, Tokyo.
History
Machida is known as "Brazil of Tokyo" due to the popularity of football in the city; it has, in fact, produced the second-largest n ...
at Nozuta Stadium in
Machida. Basketball clubs include the
Hitachi SunRockers
Sun Rockers Shibuya is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Tokyo and sponsored by Hitachi. Until 2000, the team was known as Hitachi Honsha Rising Sun. The team currently plays in the B.League.
Current roster
N ...
,
Toyota Alvark Tokyo
Alvark Tokyo is a Japanese professional basketball team located in Tokyo. The team, which is sponsored by Toyota, currently plays in the Japanese B.League. Until 2000, the team was known as the Toyota Pacers. Founded as Toyota Pacers in 1948, ...
and
Tokyo Excellence
Yokohama Excellence is a Japanese professional basketball club that will compete in the third division of Japan's B.League. Prior to the B.League's establishment, the club played in the National Basketball Development League, winning the champion ...
.
Tokyo hosted the
1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
, thus becoming the first Asian city to host the
Summer Games. The National Stadium, also known as the
Olympic Stadium, was host to a number of international sporting events. In 2016, it was to be replaced by the
New National Stadium. With a number of world-class sports venues, Tokyo often hosts national and international sporting events such as basketball tournaments, women's volleyball tournaments, tennis tournaments, swim meets, marathons, rugby union and sevens rugby games, soccer exhibition games, judo, and
karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
.
Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, in
Sendagaya,
Shibuya, is a large sports complex that includes swimming pools, training rooms, and a large indoor arena. According to ''Around the Rings'', the gymnasium has played host to the October 2011 artistic gymnastics world championships, despite the International Gymnastics Federation's initial doubt in Tokyo's ability to host the championships following the March 11 tsunami. Tokyo was also selected to host a number of games for the
2019 Rugby World Cup
The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...
, and to host the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
and the
Paralympics
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...
which had to be rescheduled to the summer of 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.
In popular culture
As the largest population center in Japan and the site of the country's largest broadcasters and studios, Tokyo is frequently the setting for many
Japanese movies, television shows, animated series (
anime),
web comics
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be ...
,
light novels,
video games, and comic books (
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
). In the ''
kaiju
is a Japanese media genre that focuses on stories involving giant monsters. The word ''kaiju'' can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monster ...
'' (monster movie) genre, landmarks of Tokyo are usually destroyed by giant monsters such as
Godzilla and
Gamera.
Some Hollywood directors have turned to Tokyo as a backdrop for movies set in Japan. Postwar examples include ''
Tokyo Joe'', ''
My Geisha'', ''
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recogniti ...
'' and the
James Bond film ''
You Only Live Twice''; recent examples include ''
Kill Bill'', ''
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'', ''
Lost in Translation'', ''
Babel
Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to:
Arts and media Written works Books
*Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith
* Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu
* Babel (20 ...
'', ''
Inception'', ''
The Wolverine'' and ''
Avengers: Endgame''.
Japanese author
Haruki Murakami has based some of his novels in Tokyo (including
''Norwegian Wood''), and
David Mitchell's first two novels (''
number9dream'' and
''Ghostwritten'') featured the city. Contemporary British painter
Carl Randall
Carl Randall (born 1975) is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London.
Education
Randall is a graduate of The Slade School of Fine Art London (BA Fine Art), the Royal Drawing School London (The Dra ...
spent 10 years living in Tokyo as an artist, creating a body of work depicting the city's crowded streets and public spaces.
International relations
Tokyo is the founding member of the
Asian Network of Major Cities 21
Asian Network of Major Cities 21 was a body representing the interests of several of Asia's largest capital cities around common themes of importance, including urban planning, sustainability and crisis management. The organization was advocated b ...
and is a member of the
Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. Tokyo was also a founding member of the
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.
Sister cities and states
, Tokyo has
twinning or friendship agreements with the following twelve cities and states:
*
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, United States (since February 1960)
*
Beijing, China (since March 1979)
*
Paris, France (since July 1982)
*
New South Wales, Australia (since May 1984)
*
Seoul, South Korea (since September 1988)
*
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, Indonesia (since October 1989)
*
São Paulo State, Brazil (since June 1990)
*
Cairo, Egypt (since October 1990)
*
Moscow, Russia (since July 1991)
*
Berlin, Germany (since May 1994)
*
Rome, Italy (since July 1996)
*
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, United Kingdom (since October 2015)
Friendship and cooperation agreements
*
Tomsk Oblast, Russia (since May 2015)
*
Brussels, Belgium (since October 2016)
*
Mumbai, India (since November 2016)
*
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
, United States (since August 2021)
International academic and scientific research
Research and development in Japan and the
Japanese space program
The Japanese space program ( ja, 日本の宇宙開発) originated in the mid-1950s as a research group led by Hideo Itokawa at the University of Tokyo. The size of the rockets produced gradually increased from under at the start of the proje ...
are globally represented by several of Tokyo's medical and scientific facilities, including the
University of Tokyo and other
universities in Tokyo, which work in collaboration with many international institutions. Especially with the United States, including
NASA and the many private spaceflight companies,
Tokyo universities have working relationships with all of the
Ivy League institutions (including
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Yale University),
along with other
research universities and development
laboratories
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
, such as
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
,
MIT, and the
UC campuses throughout California,
as well as
UNM and
Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Other partners worldwide include
Oxford University in the United Kingdom,
the
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
in Singapore,
the
University of Toronto in Canada,
and
Tsinghua University in China.
See also
*
List of cities proper by population
*
List of cities with the most skyscrapers
*
List of tallest structures in Tokyo
*
List of development projects in Tokyo
*
List of largest cities
*
List of metropolitan areas in Asia
The Asian continent is one of the fastest-growing continents in the World, with increasing urbanisation and a high growth rate for cities. Tokyo in Japan is the world's largest metropolitan area by population.
The population of the given cities ar ...
*
List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees
*
List of urban agglomerations in Asia
*
List of urban areas by population
*
Megacity
*
Tokyo dialect
*
Yamanote and Shitamachi
References
Bibliography
* Fiévé, Nicolas and Paul Waley. (2003). ''Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo''. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ;
* McClain, James, John M Merriman and Kaoru Ugawa. (1994). ''Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ;
* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia'' Cambridge:
Harvard University Press. ;
* Sorensen, Andre. (2002). ''The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty First Century''. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ;
Further reading
Guides
* Bender, Andrew, and Timothy N. Hornyak. ''Tokyo'' (City Travel Guide) (2010)
* Mansfield, Stephen. ''Dk Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide: Tokyo'' (2013)
* Waley, Paul. ''Tokyo Now and Then: An Explorer's Guide''. (1984). 592 pp
* Yanagihara, Wendy. ''Lonely Planet Tokyo Encounter''
Contemporary
* Allinson, Gary D. ''Suburban Tokyo: A Comparative Study in Politics and Social Change''. (1979). 258 pp.
* Bestor, Theodore. ''Neighborhood Tokyo'' (1989)
online edition* Bestor, Theodore. ''Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Centre of the World''. (2004
online edition* Fowler, Edward. ''San'ya Blues: Labouring Life in Contemporary Tokyo''. (1996) .
* Friedman, Mildred, ed. ''Tokyo, Form and Spirit''. (1986). 256 pp.
* Jinnai, Hidenobu. ''Tokyo: A Spatial Anthropology''. (1995). 236 pp.
* Jones, Sumie et al. eds. ''A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Modern Metropolis, 1850–1920'' (2017); primary source
excerpt* Perez, Louis G. ''Tokyo: Geography, History, and Culture'' (ABC-CLIO, 2019).
* Reynolds, Jonathan M. "Japan's Imperial Diet Building: Debate over Construction of a National Identity". ''Art Journal''. 55#3 (1996) pp. 38+.
* Sassen, Saskia. ''The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo''. (1991). 397 pp.
* Sorensen, A. ''Land Readjustment and Metropolitan Growth: An Examination of Suburban Land Development and Urban Sprawl in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area'' (2000)
Taira, J. ''[reOKYO.'' (2018). San Francisco: ORO Editions.">e">Taira, J. ''
[re
OKYO.'' (2018). San Francisco: ORO Editions.
* Waley, Paul. "Tokyo-as-world-city: Reassessing the Role of Capital and the State in Urban Restructuring". ''Urban Studies'' 2007 44(8): 1465–1490. Fulltext: Ebsco
External links
Official website
Official website
{{Authority control
1457 establishments in Asia
15th-century establishments in Japan
Capitals in Asia
Kantō region
Populated coastal places in Japan
Populated places established in the 1450s
Port settlements in Japan
States and territories established in the 1450s