Edo's fishing village became a 14-million-person capital
Tokyo Metropolis, Japan's capital, held over 14 million residents in the city proper by 2023, with Greater Tokyo among Earth's largest metro clusters. At Tokyo Bay on Honshu's Kantō coast, it hosts government, the Imperial Palace, and the national economy. As Edo it became Tokugawa seat in 1603 and a huge city by the mid-1700s.
Before it was the "Eastern Capital," it was Edo, from characters meaning cove and gate, a nod to where the Sumida River meets Tokyo Bay. People lived here in the Paleolithic, and the Yayoi period takes its name from a Tokyo neighbourhood where the first pottery of that style was dug up in 1884. Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle in 1457. When Tokugawa Ieyasu became shōgun in 1603, the whole country came to be run from Edo, and during the long Tokugawa peace the former fishing settlement passed a million people by the 18th century, rebuilding again and again after fires and earthquakes.
Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 ended the era of seclusion, triggering inflation and unrest that helped topple the last shōgun in 1867. On 3 September 1868 Edo was renamed Tokyo and the emperor moved in from Kyoto; the old castle became the Imperial Palace. The University of Tokyo opened in 1877, the stock exchange in 1878, and the national Diet in 1889. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1 September 1923 and its fires killed about 105,000 people, but the resilience of concrete buildings pushed the city toward quake-proof construction. The Ginza Line, opened in 1927, is Asia's oldest subway.
War brought political turmoil, the surrender of the planned 1940 Olympics and heavy Allied bombing. In 1943 city and prefecture merged into the Tokyo Metropolis, which is why Tokyo is still governed more like a prefecture, with a governor over 23 special wards, western suburbs and two outlying island chains. Rapid postwar rebuilding powered Japan's economic miracle, and in 1964 Tokyo became the first Asian city to host the Summer Olympics, returning as host in 2021.
The city proper held over 14 million people in 2023, and Greater Tokyo about 33 million in 2025, the world's third-largest metro area. It produced 21.2% of Japan's output in fiscal 2022, houses 26 Fortune Global 500 companies, and has been ranked the world's safest city by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Shinjuku Station is the busiest train station anywhere, and Tokyo Skytree is the tallest tower.
Source: Tokyo
