TOKYO!

Wikicity guide april 2010

Wikicity guide for Tokyo. April 2010. A non-commercial project for testing, training and designing without clients or others opinions.

Design, photos and illustrations by Jonas Gustafsson. www.jonasgustafsson.com

Typefaces used: Aaux Pro, Bickham Script, Chaparral Pro, Goudy Heavyface, Hiragino Maru Gothic, ITC Lubalin Graph, Memphic LT.

All texts from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons License.

3 Tokyo Metropolis

4 History

7 Geographics

8 Climate & Environment

12Demographics

14Economics

19Transportation

20Culture

Wikicity guide april 2010

TOKYO!

Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (Tokyo-fu) and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan gov-ernment administers the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, that cover the area that was the city of Tokyo as well as 39 mu-nicipalities in the western part of the

prefecture and the two outlying island chains. Although technically not a city, Tokyo is considered the capital and largest city of Japan.

The population of the special wards is over 8 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 12 million. The prefecture is the center

Tokyo Metropolis

of the Greater Tokyo Area, the world’s most populous metropolitan area with 35 to 39 million people (depending on definition) and the world’s largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2008.

Tokyo was described by Saskia Sas-sen as one of the three “command centers” for the world economy, along with New York City and London. This city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC’s 2008 inventory and ranked fourth among global cities by Foreign Policy’s 2008 Global Cities

Index. In 2009 Tokyo was named the world’s most expensive city for ex-patriate employees, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys and named the third Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine Monocle.

Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese govern-ment and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. It is located on the eastern side of the main island Honsh and in-cludes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands.

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Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the center of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century.

It became the de facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation’s political and cultural center, and the emperor’s residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established, and continued to be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in 1943 and merged with the “Metropolitan Prefecture” of Tokyo.

Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about 1900 to be centered around major train stations in a high-density fashion[citation needed], so suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level and with their own right-of-way. This differs from many cities in the United States that are low-density and automobile-centric. Though expressways have been built in Tokyo, the basic design has not changed.

Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century, but it recovered from both. One was the 1923 Great Kantō earth-quake, which left 140,000 dead or missing,[14] and the other was World War II. The bombing of Tokyo in 1944 and 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and half of the city destroyed, was almost as devas-tating as the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

After the war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt, and showcased to the world during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new

high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60, a new and controversial airport at Narita in 1978 (some distance outside city limits), and a population increase to about 11 million (in the metropolitan area).

Tokyo’s subway and commuter rail network became one of the busiest in the world as more and more people moved to the area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during a real estate and debt bubble. The bubble burst in the early 1990s, and many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with mortgage backed debts while real estate was shrink-ing in value. A major reces-sion followed, making the 1990s Japan’s “lost decade” from which it is now slowly recovering.

Tokyo still sees new urban developments on large lots of less profitable land. Re-cent projects include Ebisu Garden Place, Tennozu Isle, Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Shinagawa (now also a Shinkansen station), and the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Buildings of significance are demolished for more up-to-date shopping facilities such as Omotesando Hills.

Land reclamation projects in Tokyo have also been going on for cen-turies. The most prominent is the Odaiba area, now a major shop-ping and entertainment center. Various plans have been proposed for transferring national government functions from Tokyo to secondary capitals in other regions of Japan, in order to slow down rapid de-velopment in Tokyo and revitalize economically lagging areas of the country. These plans have been controversial within Japan and have yet to be realized.

HistoryEdo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a popula-tion topping one mil-lion by the 18th century

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The mainland portion of Tokyo lies northwest of Tokyo Bay and measures about 90 km east to west and 25 km north to south. Chiba Prefecture bor-ders it to the east, Yamanashi to the west, Kanagawa to the south, and Saitama to the north. Mainland Tokyo is further subdivided into the special wards (occupying the eastern half) and the Tama area (多摩地域) stretching westwards.

Also within the administrative bound-aries of Tokyo Metropolis are two island chains in the Pacific Ocean directly south: the Izu Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands, which stretch more than 1,000 km away from the mainland. Because of these islands and mountainous regions to the west, To-

kyo's overall population density figures far underrepresent the real figures for urban and suburban regions of Tokyo.Under Japanese law, Tokyo is designat-ed as a to (都), translated as metropo-lis. Its administrative structure is simi-lar to that of Japan's other prefectures. Within Tokyo lie dozens of smaller entities, most of them conventionally referred to as cities. It includes twenty-three special wards (特別区 -ku) which until 1943 comprised the city of Tokyo but are now separate, self-governing municipalities, each with a mayor and a council, and having the status of a city.

In addition to these 23 municipalities, Tokyo also encompasses 26 more cities (市 -shi), five towns (町 -chō or machi),

and eight villages (村 -son or -mura), each of which has a local government. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is headed by a publicly elected gover-nor and metropolitan assembly. Its headquarters are in the ward of Shin-juku. They govern all of Tokyo, includ-ing lakes, rivers, dams, farms, remote islands, and national parks in addition to its neon jungles, skyscrapers and crowded subways.

The special wards (tokubetsu-ku) of To-kyo comprise the area formerly incor-porated as Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, Tokyo City was merged with Tokyo Prefecture (東京府 Tōkyō-fu) forming the current "metropolitan prefecture". As a result, unlike other city wards in Japan, these wards are not part of any

larger incorporated city. Each ward is a municipality with its own elected may-or and assembly like the other cities of Japan. The wards differ from other cities in having a unique administra-tive relationship with the prefectural government. Certain municipal func-tions, such as waterworks, sewerage, and fire-fighting, are handled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. To pay for the added administrative costs, the prefecture collects municipal taxes, which would usually be levied by the city. The special wards of Tokyo are as follows: Adachi, Arakawa, Bunkyō, Chiyoda, Chūō, Edogawa, Itabashi, Katsushika, Kita, Kōtō, Meguro, Mi-nato, Nakano, Nerima, Ōta, Setagaya, Shibuya, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, Sugina-mi, Sumida, Taitō and Toshima.

Geography.

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Climate &Environment

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tokyo lies in the humid subtropical cli-mate zone (koppen climate classification cfa), with hot humid summers and gen-erally mild winters with cool spells. The region, like much of Japan, experiences a one-month seasonal lag, with the warmest month being August, which averages 27.5 °c (81.5 °F), and the coolest month being January, averaging 6.0 °c (42.8 °F). annual rainfall averages nearly 1,470 millimetres (57.9 in), with a wetter summer and a drier winter. Snowfall is sporadic, but does oc-cur almost annually. tokyo also often sees typhoons each year, though few are strong. The last one to hit was Fitow in 2007.

tokyo has enacted a measure to cut green-house gases. governor Shintaro ishihara created Japan's first emissions cap system, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission by a total of 25 percent by 2020 from the 2000 level.

tokyo is an example of an urban heat is-land, and the phenomenon is especially serious in its special wards. according to the tokyo Metropolitan government, the annual mean temperature has increased by about 3°c over the past 100 years. tokyo has been cited as a "convincing example of the relationship between urban growth and climate."

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As of October 2007, the official inter-censal estimate showed 12.79 million people in Tokyo with 8.653 million liv-ing within Tokyo's 23 wards. During the daytime, the population swells by over 2.5 million as workers and stu-dents commute from adjacent areas. This effect is even more pronounced in the three central wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, whose collective population as of the 2005 National

Census was 326,000 at night, but 2.4 million during the day.

The entire prefecture had 12,790,000 residents in October 2007 (8,653,000 in 23 wards), with an increase of over 3 million in the day. Tokyo is at its highest population ever, while that of the 23 wards peak official count was 8,893,094 in the 1965 Census, with the count dipping below 8 million in

the 1995 Census. People continue to move back into the core city as land prices have fallen dramatically.

As of 2005, the most common for-eign nationalities found in Tokyo are Chinese (123,661), Korean (106,697), Filipino (31,077), American (18,848), British (7,696), Brazilian (5,300) and French (3,000).

Demographics

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Top 10 urban areas by population of the worldRank City Country Population Area (km2) Density (pop/km2)

1 Tokyo–Yokohama Japan 35,200,000 8,677 4,100

2 Jakarta Indonesia 22,000,000 2,590 8,500

3 Mumbai India 21,255,000 777 27,400

4 Delhi India 20,995,000 1,425 14,700

5 Manila Philippines 20,795,000 1,425 14,600

6 New York United States 20,610,000 11,264 1,800

7 São Paulo Brazil 20,180,000 3,756 5,400

8 Seoul–Incheon South Korea 19,910,000 1,943 10,200

9 Mexico City Mexico 18,690,000 2,525 7,400

10 Shanghai People's Republic of China 18,400,000 2,914 6,300

tokyo is one of the three world fi-nance "command centers", along with New york and london. to-kyo has the largest metropoli-

tan economy in the world. according to a study conducted by pricewater-housecoopers, the tokyo urban area (35.2 million people) had a total gdp of uS$1.479 trillion in 2008 (at purchasing power parity), ranking again as the largest urban agglomeration gdp in the world. as of 2008, 47 of the companies listed on the global 500 are based in tokyo, almost twice that of the second-placed city (paris).

tokyo is a major international finance center, houses the headquarters of several of the world's largest investment banks and insurance companies, and serves as a hub for Japan's transportation, publishing, and broadcast-ing industries. during the centralized growth of Japan's economy following World War ii, many large firms moved their headquarters from cities such as Osaka (the historical commercial capital) to tokyo, in an attempt to take ad-vantage of better access to the government. This trend has begun to slow due to ongoing population growth in tokyo and the high cost of living there.

tokyo was rated by the economist intelligence unit as the most expensive (highest cost-of-living) city in the world for 14 years in a row ending in 2006. This analysis is for living a corporate executive lifestyle, with items like a detached house and several automobiles.

Economy

The tokyo Stock exchange is Japan's largest stock exchange, and second largest in the world by market capitalization and fourth largest by share turnover. in 1990 at the end of the Japanese asset price bubble, it accounted for more than 60% of the world stock market value.

tokyo had 8,460 ha (20,900 acres) of agricultural land as of 2003, according to the Ministry of agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, placing it last among the nation's prefectures. The farmland is concentrated in Western tokyo. per-ishables such as vegetables, fruits, and flowers can be conveniently shipped to the markets in the eastern part of the prefecture. Japanese leaf spinach and spinach are the most important vegetables; as of 2000, tokyo supplied 32.5% of the Japanese leaf spinach sold at its central produce market.

With 36% of its area covered by forest, tokyo has extensive growths of cryptomeria and Japanese cypress, especially in the mountainous western communities of akiruno, Ōme, Okutama, Hachiōji, Hinode, and Hinohara. decreases in the price of lumber, increases in the cost of production, and ad-vancing old age among the forestry population have resulted in a decline in tokyo's output. in addition, pollen, especially from cryptomeria, is a major allergen for the nearby population centers.

tokyo Bay was once a major source of fish. presently, most of tokyo's fish pro-duction comes from the outer islands, such as izu Ōshima and Hachijōjima. Skipjack tuna, nori, and aji are among the ocean products.

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Tokyo, as the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, is Japan's largest domestic and international hub for rail, ground, and air transportation. Public transportation within Tokyo is dominated by an extensive network of clean and efficient trains and subways run by a variety of operators, with buses, monorails and trams playing a secondary feeder role.

Within Ōta, one of the 23 special wards, Tokyo International Airport ("Haneda") offers mainly domestic flights. Outside Tokyo, Narita Interna-tional Airport, in Chiba Prefecture, is the major gateway for international travelers to Japan and All Nippon Airways, Air Japan and Delta Air Lines all have a hub at this airport.

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Various islands governed by Tokyo have their own airports. Hachijōjima, Miyakejima, and Izu Ōshima (Oshima Airport) have service to Tokyo International and other airports.

Rail is the primary mode of transportation in To-kyo, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world and an equally extensive network of surface lines. JR East operates Tokyo's largest railway network, including the Yamanote Line loop that circles the center of downtown Tokyo. Two organizations operate the subway network: the private Tokyo Metro and the gov-ernmental Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Trans-portation. The metropolitan government and pri-vate carriers operate bus routes. Local, regional,

and national services are available, with major terminals at the giant railroad stations, including Tokyo, Shinagawa, and Shinjuku.

Expressways link the capital to other points in the Greater Tokyo area, the Kantō region, and the islands of Kyūshū and Shikoku. Other transporta-tion includes taxis operating in the special wards and the cities and towns. Also long-distance fer-ries serve the islands of Tokyo and carry passen-gers and cargo to domestic and foreign ports.

Culture.

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Tokyo has many museums. In Ueno Park there are four national museums: Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum and specializing in tradi-tional Japanese art; the National Museum of Western Art; and the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, with its collections of Japanese modern art as well as over 40,000 Japanese and foreign films. Also in Ueno Park are the National Museum of Science and the pub-lic zoo. Other museums include the Nezu Art Museum in Aoyama; the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Sumida across the Sumida River from the center of Tokyo; and the National Diet Library, National Archives, and the Na-tional Museum of Modern Art, which are located near the Imperial Palace.

Tokyo has many theaters for the performing arts as well. These include national and private theaters for traditional forms of Japanese drama (like noh and kabuki) as well as modern dramas. Symphony orches-tras and other musical organizations perform modern and traditional music. Tokyo also hosts modern Japa-nese and international pop and rock music at venues ranging in size from intimate clubs to internationally known arenas like the Nippon Budokan.

Many different festivals occur throughout Tokyo. Ma-jor 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 attracts over a million viewers. Once cherry blos-soms, or sakura, bloom in spring, many residents gather in Ueno Park, Inokashira Park, and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for picnics under the blossoms.

Harajuku, a neighborhood in Shibuya, is known inter-nationally for its youth style and fashion.

Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed. In No-vember 2007, Michelin released their guide for fine dining in Tokyo, garnering 191 stars in total, or about twice as many as its nearest competitor, Paris. Eight es-tablishments were awarded the maximum of three stars (Paris has 10), 25 received two stars, and 117 earned one star. Of the eight top-rated restaurants, three offer traditional Japanese fine dining, two are sushi houses and three serve French cuisine.

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TOKYO!