46 Facts About Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture

1.

Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and largest city of Japan.

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2.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.

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3.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was devastated by the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, and again by Allied bombing raids during World War II.

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4.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is the largest urban economy worldwide by gross domestic product, and is categorized as an Alpha+ city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

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5.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is an international centre leading research and development in Japan and is likewise represented by several major universities, most notably including the University of Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture.

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6.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture Station is the central hub for Japan's high-speed railway network, the Shinkansen; the Shinjuku Station in Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is the world's busiest train station.

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7.

Notable special wards of Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture include: Chiyoda, the site of the National Diet Building and the Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture Imperial Palace; Shinjuku, the city's administrative centre; and Shibuya, a commercial, cultural, and business hub.

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8.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was originally known as Edo, a kanji compound of ? and ?.

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9.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was originally a village called Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province.

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10.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was already the nation's political center, and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well, with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace.

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11.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century: the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, which left 140,000 dead or missing; and World War II.

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12.

In 1943, the city of Tokyo merged with the prefecture of Tokyo to form the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo.

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13.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture struggled to rebuild as occupation authorities stepped in and drastically cut back on Japanese government rebuilding programs, focusing instead on simply improving roads and transportation.

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14.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture did not experience fast economic growth until the 1950s.

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15.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture still sees new urban developments on large lots of less profitable land.

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16.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture thus became the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games twice.

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17.

Mainland Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is further subdivided into the special wards and the Tama area stretching westwards.

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18.

Tokyo Prefecture is the most populous prefecture and the densest, with 6,100 inhabitants per square kilometre ; by geographic area it is the third-smallest, above only Osaka and Kagawa.

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19.

The 23 special wards, which until 1943 constituted the city of Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture, are self-governing municipalities, each having a mayor, a council, and the status of a city.

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20.

When Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture reached its current extent except for smaller border changes in 1893, it consisted of over 170 municipalities, 1 city, nine districts with their towns and villages, plus the island communities that had never part of ritsuryo districts.

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21.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is near the boundary of three plates, making it an extremely active region for smaller quakes and slippage which frequently affect the urban area with swaying as if in a boat, although epicenters within mainland Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture are quite rare.

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22.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture has been hit by powerful megathrust earthquakes in 1703,1782,1812,1855,1923, and much more indirectly in 2011; the frequency of direct and large quakes is a relative rarity.

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23.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is located on the Kanto Plain with 5 river systems and dozens of rivers that expand during each season.

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24.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture often sees typhoons every year, though few are strong.

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25.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture has experienced significant warming of its climate since temperature records began in 1876.

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26.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is an example of an urban heat island, and the phenomenon is especially serious in its special wards.

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27.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture has been cited as a "convincing example of the relationship between urban growth and climate".

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28.

In 2006, Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture enacted the "10 Year Project for Green Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture" to be realized by 2016.

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29.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is a major international finance center; it 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, electronics and broadcasting industries.

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30.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was rated by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the most expensive city in the world for 14 years in a row ending in 2006, when it was replaced by Oslo, and later Paris.

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31.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture emerged as a leading international financial center in the 1960s and has been described as one of the three "command centers" for the world economy, along with New York City and London.

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32.

Toyosu Market in Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world since it opened on October 11,2018.

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33.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture, which is the center of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture Area, is Japan's largest domestic and international hub for rail and ground transportation.

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34.

Public transportation within Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture 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.

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35.

Narita International Airport in Chiba Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is the major gateway for international travelers to Japan.

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36.

Rail is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world and an equally extensive network of surface lines.

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37.

Also, long-distance ferries serve the islands of Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture and carry passengers and cargo to domestic and foreign ports.

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38.

Public senior high schools in Tokyo are run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education and are called "Metropolitan High Schools".

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39.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture has many private schools from kindergarten through high school:.

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40.

In November 2007, Michelin released their first guide for fine dining in Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture, awarding 191 stars in total, or about twice as many as Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture's nearest competitor, Paris.

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41.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, thus becoming the first Asian city to host the Summer Games.

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42.

Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, in Sendagaya, Shibuya, is a large sports complex that includes swimming pools, training rooms, and a large indoor arena.

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43.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was selected to host a number of games for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and the Paralympics which had to be rescheduled to the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

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44.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture is the founding member of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 and is a member of the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations.

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45.

Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture was a founding member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.

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46.

Especially with the United States, including NASA and the many private spaceflight companies, Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture universities have working relationships with all of the Ivy League institutions, along with other research universities and development laboratories, such as Stanford, MIT, and the UC campuses throughout California, as well as UNM and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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