Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyo's central 23 special wards (which formerly made up Tokyo City), various commuter towns and suburbs in its western area, and two outlying island chains known as the Tokyo Islands. Despite most of the world recognising Tokyo as a city, since 1943 its governing structure has been more akin to a prefecture, with an accompanying Governor and Assembly taking precedence over the smaller municipal governments which make up the metropolis. Notable special wards in Tokyo include Chiyoda, the site of the National Diet Building and the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Shinjuku, the city's administrative center, and Shibuya, a commercial, cultural, and business hub in the city.
Image 4Koreans in Japan about to be stabbed by Japanese vigilantes with bamboo spears immediately after the earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 5Picture of the Upper Class, a c. 1794–1795 painting by Utamaro. The woman on the left is lower in class than the woman on the right, who wears more colorful clothes (from History of Tokyo)
Image 6A Tokyo taxi driver indicating a fare of 50 Sen by holding up five fingers, in 1932 (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 37The five-story pagoda of Kan'ei-ji, which was constructed during the reign of Tokugawa Hidetada and required the building of the Kimon (Devil's Gate) (from History of Tokyo)
Image 38Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Edo the capital of Japan (from History of Tokyo)
Image 39A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 41A scene from the Tokugawa Seiseiroku, showing an aspect of the sankin-kōtai system: the festive attendance day of daimyo at Edo Castle (from History of Tokyo)
Image 57A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. (from History of Tokyo)
... that pianist Fujita Haruko, one of the first 19 female students enrolled at the University of Tokyo, was taught by Leo Sirota, who was once called the "god of piano"?
... that Paralympian Gemma Collis-McCann, who sits on wheelchair fencing's new Gender Equity Commission, has been chosen to join three men as the UK's wheelchair fencing team in Tokyo?
... that Allen Ravenstine, who used a synthesizer to emulate the sound of an airplane's engine on "30 Seconds Over Tokyo", later became an airline pilot?
... that Ralph Page once called a contra dance for more than 4000 people in Tokyo, despite not knowing Japanese?