Tokyo

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan.

It sits next to a bay on the Pacific Ocean. Millions and millions of people live there. It has tall towers, quiet gardens and very busy trains.

Tokyo is the capital of Japan. It lies on the Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan's biggest island, at the top of Tokyo Bay. Its name means Eastern Capital.

What most people call the city is its 23 wards, or districts, where about 9.7 million people lived in 2020. They are part of a larger area called the Tokyo Metropolis, home to about 14.3 million people in 2022, which also includes mountains to the west and islands far out in the Pacific. With the cities around it, Greater Tokyo is the largest city region in Japan.

Tokyo stands at the head of Tokyo Bay on the Pacific coast of central Honshu, at the southern edge of the Kantō Plain, the largest plain in Japan. Britannica notes that "the city of Tokyo" usually means the 23 wards, which cover 621 km² and had 9,733,276 people in 2020. As an administrative unit, that city ended in 1943, when it was merged into the Tokyo Metropolis, which also takes in rural and mountain districts to the west, the Izu Islands and the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands some 800 km to the southeast. The Metropolis had about 14.3 million people in 2022.

Tokyo is the core of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, with Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures: 36,914,176 people in 2020, about one-fourth of Japan's population. It is the country's largest industrial, commercial and financial center and its chief transport hub.

Tokyo Skytree is a super tall tower. You can go up high and look down at the city.

Tokyo Tower is red and white. In the middle of the city is a palace with water all around it. Ueno Park has museums, a zoo and pink cherry blossoms.

Tokyo Skytree, opened in 2012, rises 634 meters above the city. The red-and-white Tokyo Tower, about 333 meters tall, opened in 1958. At the heart of the city is the Imperial Palace, the home of Japan's emperor, ringed by stone-walled moats and wide gardens.

Ueno Park holds the Tokyo National Museum, a science museum, a zoo and art museums, and it is the city's most famous place for cherry blossoms. Bright Ginza is a world-famous shopping street, and in Asakusa stands Sensō Temple, one of the oldest places in the city.

The Imperial Palace occupies the grounds of the former Edo Castle, encircled by stone-walled moats and broad gardens; east of it lies Marunouchi, the financial hub, and to the south Kasumigaseki, which with the districts just west of it holds the main national government offices, including the National Diet Building. Tokyo has no single business district: Britannica describes a city of many centers clustered around railway stations, the largest, Shinjuku, being the main retail and entertainment district in Japan.

Tokyo Skytree (634 m) opened on May 22, 2012, and Tokyo Tower (about 333 m) on December 23, 1958. Ueno Park contains the Tokyo National Museum, with art and history of Japan and Asia, plus a science museum, a zoo and two major art museums. Sensō Temple in Asakusa dates from perhaps the late 7th century, though nearly all its structures were rebuilt after the war. Britannica observes that physically Tokyo is among the newest cities in the world: almost nothing is as much as a century old.

Tokyo has four seasons.

Summer is hot and sticky. Winter is cool and sunny. In spring, pink cherry blossoms open all over the city. In autumn, the leaves turn red and gold.

Tokyo has four clear seasons. August is the warmest month, averaging 26.9 °C, and the air is very humid. January is the coolest, averaging 5.4 °C. It rarely gets much below freezing, and winter is the sunniest season, when you can sometimes see Mount Fuji from tall buildings.

Rainy spells come in early summer and early autumn, and typhoons, the Pacific's name for hurricanes, strike the region in most years. Plum blossoms come first, cherry trees bloom in early April, and May brings azaleas and wisteria.

Japan Meteorological Agency normals for central Tokyo (1991–2020) give a January mean of 5.4 °C, an August mean of 26.9 °C, a yearly mean of 15.8 °C and about 1,598 mm of precipitation a year. Britannica compares the climate with that of Washington, D.C., though Tokyo lies somewhat farther south. Summer is the one really uncomfortable season, with humidity near saturation and August days that reach about 32 °C.

Winter is brisk but rarely falls far below freezing; it is the sunniest season, with the cleanest air, and the only one in which Mount Fuji is often visible from high buildings in the center. Heavy snow usually comes in early spring and melts quickly. Rainy periods arrive in early summer and early autumn, the second linked to typhoons, which strike the region in most years. Plum blossoms come first, cherry blossoms in early April and peonies, azaleas and wisteria in May.

Many people in Tokyo live in apartments.

They ride trains to school and work. On weekends they visit parks, museums and gardens. In spring, families picnic under the cherry blossoms.

Tokyo is a city of many centers. Instead of one downtown, busy hubs with shops, offices and restaurants grow up around train stations, like Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro. Between them are quieter neighborhoods of homes and small shops.

Land is very expensive, so many families live in small apartments, and some workers travel a long way to their jobs every day. Tokyo has many parks and gardens, and people visit them to see each season's flowers. The city is also Japan's center for universities, museums and theater, from traditional kabuki to modern plays and concerts.

Early Western visitors described Edo as a collection of villages, and Britannica argues that Tokyo is still best seen as a cluster of cities: satellite centers such as Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro, each as large as a city, around their stations. The center of gravity moved west during the 20th century, from the old merchant flatlands by the Sumida River to the hilly High City.

High land prices are among Tokyo's most stubborn problems: families who can afford to live near the center usually have small condominium apartments, and many office workers commute long distances. Parks, temple grounds and gardens are numerous; Ueno Park remains the most famous place for cherry blossoms, and the iris gardens of the Meiji Shrine are celebrated. The University of Tokyo heads a long list of universities, and theaters stage everything from kabuki, which reached great sophistication in Edo, to opera and symphonic music.