Why it's the capital
Under its old name, Edo, the city became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. In 1868 it was renamed Tokyo, meaning "Eastern Capital", and Emperor Meiji moved the capital here from Kyoto.
Tokyo
Capital of JapanTokyo lies at the head of Tokyo Bay in the Kantō region, on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island.
Fun facts
- By the mid-18th century, Edo had grown from a small fishing village into one of the largest cities in the world.
- In 1964 Tokyo became the first city in Asia to host the Summer Olympics.
- The Ogasawara Islands, about 1,000 km south-southeast of the city in the Pacific Ocean, are also part of Tokyo.
Finding it on the globe
Picture Japan's long chain of islands and aim at the middle of the biggest one, Honshu, on its Pacific side where Tokyo Bay opens to the ocean.
Easy to mix up
Kyoto, the imperial capital for more than a thousand years, has the same letters in a different order, but it lies inland in a valley to the west-southwest; Tokyo is the one on Tokyo Bay.
Sources: Wikipedia: Tokyo, Wikipedia: Tokyo Bay, Wikipedia: Ogasawara Islands, Wikipedia: Kyoto