style="font-size:15px;"> Metropolis. Mega city. Call Tokyo what you will, but there is no disputing the status of Japan’s capital as one of the world’s great cities. Just over 13 million people call Tokyo home, nearly 35 million if you count the neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, which with Tokyo make up the most common definition of the Greater Tokyo area, an unbroken urban sprawl that spreads mile upon mile west, north and east from the center of Tokyo.
Japan is a pioneer in the field of robotics. Honda’s humanoid Asimo robot, pictured here performing at the Miraikan in Odaiba (page 78), can talk, dance and even kick a football. Do not be surprised to soon see robots working as home helpers, receptionists and performing many other roles in Tokyo.
Tokyo’s current place in the world, only 70 years after the city was all but decimated by war (90 after it was leveled by an earthquake), is nothing short of miraculous. From a business perspective, the Tokyo Stock Exchange has become one of the main financial hubs in Asia, while Tokyo also competes with Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai as the Asian base for many multinational corporations, not to mention being home to major Japanese corporations with global reach and recognition, companies that have forged a reputation for cutting-edge and precision technology and efficiency.
In a sporting sense, after rebuilding from World War II, the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 was one of the first opportunities for Tokyo to show the world it was back. Since then, Tokyo has become the host venue for the 2002 World Cup, held jointly with South Korea, as well as a regular host of football’s Confederation Cup and many other major sporting events across a range of disciplines. And with the awarding of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, Tokyo is now gearing up to once again be the focus of the world’s greatest sporting celebrations.
The crowds, energy, lights and fashions of Shibuya at night epitomize modern Tokyo.
Culturally, traditional Japanese arts and craft have long been appreciated and influential overseas but, emanating from Tokyo, so too has modern Japanese culture. On the back of manga (comic books), anime (animation), video games and related products, Akihabara is the center point of a globally reaching otaku (geek) culture. Tokyo also has one of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art scenes, highlighted by major annual events such as the Roppongi Art Night and the biannual Design Festa, the world’s largest freestyle art fair.
The latest technology on display. Japan’s home electronics makers produce world-leading products, which you can check out in megastores like Yodobashi and Bic Camera or in the home electronics district of Akihabara (page 54).
In Harajuku, you will see that style-wise anything goes in Tokyo.
Fashionable districts like Shibuya and Roppongi have some of the best clubs in Asia.
But one thing that differentiates Japan from other “world cities” is the population breakdown. For better or worse, and despite people from 190 different nations living in Tokyo, Tokyo remains predominantly Japanese. Of the 13.2 million people living in Tokyo, only around 3 percent are non-Japanese (compare that to over 30 percent in London or more than 35 percent in New York), the majority of that figure being Korean and Chinese nationals, many of whom were born in Japan.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange in the Nihombashi district is one of Asia’s main trading venues.
Despite Tokyo’s reputation for high-rise, high-tech and neon, tradition often punctuates the modern metropolis. Here, women wear kimono as they enjoy the spring cherry blossoms.
A helicopter cruise takes in Tokyo Tower and sprawling central Tokyo. For the especially well-heeled, helicopter taxis also run from Narita Airport to the city center.
Relaxing after work at the yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurants underneath the rail tracks by Yurakucho Station. Japan has a very rich and varied culinary heritage of its own, but Tokyo is also a truly global culinary city. With an estimated 90,000–100,000 licensed eateries, Tokyo’s dining scene stretches from Korean, Chinese and Southeast Asian to European, Middle Eastern and beyond.
The subway whizzes by. Tokyo’s spider web of a train and subway network runs with incredible efficiency, only stopping (or just slowing) briefly when typhoons hit or when somebody commits suicide on the tracks.
If you want to experience Tokyo’s crowds first hand, try a rush-hour train or the Shibuya Crossing at night.
FROM EDO TO TOKYO: THE SHOGUN’S CAPITAL
In 1590, 13 years before unifying Japan and becoming the first of the Edo-era shoguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu chose the town of Edo as his base of power. At the time, what is now Tokyo was not much more than marshland and estuaries centered around a small and ageing fortress, but by the time the Edo era had come to an end in 1868, Ieyasu’s capital had become the world’s largest city.
Gogatsu ningyo (lit. May dolls) are an example of how tradition still underpins modern Tokyo life. Displayed on Kodomo-no-hi, or Children’s Day (May 5th), by families with sons, these sets are said to bring good health and happiness for boys. Ornate dolls for girls are also displayed each year as part of the Hina-matsuri (Doll Festival) in March.
At the heart of Edo was the Tokugawa’s Edo Castle, originally built in 1457 by a daimyo (lord) called Ota Dokan, but then transformed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and subsequent shoguns into what was reputedly the largest castle in the world in its day. At its peak, its inner compound was some 8 kilometers in diameter, the outer compound 16 kilometers, and at its heart was a castle donjon with a 50-meter-high, five-tiered façade. During 260 years of Tokugawa rule, the castle was a potent symbol of power that remained unbreached, only succumbing to fires that frequently wreaked havoc on Edo.
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