Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the political, economic and cultural center, located in the central part of the Japanese archipelago, at the southern end of the Honshu Kanto Plain, bordering Tokyo Bay to the southeast, facing the vast Pacific Ocean. The full name of Tokyo is "Tokyo Prefecture", and "Toshi" is a first-level administrative unit, which means capital.
More than 900 years ago, this part of Tokyo was a small, desolate village, and the villagers mainly lived by fishing in the sea, which was called Chiyoda in the past, and today there is a central area in downtown Tokyo called Chiyoda Ward as a memorial to the history of the city. In the 12th century, a hao clan named the Edo clan occupied the site, built a castle, and turned the small village into a market town, named after Edo.
In Japanese, the word Edo means "gateway to the river", and it happens that rivers such as the Sumina River and Arakawa River flow through here to join Tokyo Bay, and it is geographically appropriate to use Edo as the name of this place, which is the origin of the old name of Tokyo. In 1457, a military general named Ota Michikura ordered the gathering of migrant workers to build Edo Castle.
Although the size of the city was not large at that time, it has become a remarkable and important town in the Kanto region. At this time, Edo Castle began to be recorded in official writing. For more than 200 years, from 1603 to 1867, Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate (i.e., the centralized military government) and became the political center that ruled Japan.
During this period, the urban area expanded and the urban population increased rapidly, becoming a large city with a population of one million. In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown, Japan achieved the Meiji Restoration, and the Meiji Emperor ordered the capital to be moved from Kyoto to Edo, also known as Nishikyo, because Edo was located on the east side of Kyoto, Edo was renamed Tokyo, meaning "the capital of the East" to distinguish it from the ancient capital of Kyoto.
Emperor Meiji's edict changing Edo's name to Tokyo was issued on July 7 of that year, and on October 30, Emperor Meiji officially entered Tokyo with members of the imperial family. In 1871, Tokyo Prefecture was established, and in 1889, 15 wards were formally formed into the city of Tokyo.
In 1943, the Japanese government changed the city of Tokyo to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in the form of a decree and expanded its jurisdiction. Since then, the name Tokyo has been used to this day. Today, Tokyo, with an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers and a population of about 12 million, is one of the most famous cities in the world.