Tokyo Map

Tokyo is Japan's capital,country's largest city, world's largest metropolitan area and home to 30 million people.

Tokyo officially Tokyo Metropolis is also one of Japan's 47 prefectures, but is called a metropolis rather than a prefecture. The metropolis of Tokyo consists of 23 city wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages, including the Izu and Ogasawara Islands, several small Pacific Islands in the south of Japan's main island Honshu. The 23 city wards are the center of Tokyo and make up about one third of the metropolis' area, while housing roughly eight of Tokyo's approximately twelve million residents.

Prior to 1868, Tokyo was known as Edo. A small castle town in the 16th century, Edo became Japan's political center in 1603 when Tokugawa leyasu established his feudal government there. A few decades later, Edo had grown into one of the world's most populous cities. With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the emperor and capital were moved from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo ("Eastern Capital"). Large parts of Tokyo were destroyed in theGreat kanto Earthquake of 1923 and in the air raids of 1945.

Since the 1900's the rail-centric city of Tokyo had also become Japan 's lifeline making it the economic as well as the educational capital. Most of the country's prestigious Universities are based in Tokyo and also many international companies have headquarters in Tokyo . Japan 's chunk of wealth comes from Tokyo 's booming real-estate business . Tokyo was first connected with the world through air by the Narita International Airport , which was built in the 1970's at some distance from Tokyo city. Tokyo International Airport caters to the demands of domestic flying and is located within the city limits.