Tokyo is the capital city of Japan and the seat of its national government.
Tokyo lies on Japan’s main island, Honshu, at the head of Tokyo Bay. It is formally a metropolitan prefecture rather than an ordinary city, consisting of 23 special wards, municipalities in the western part of the prefecture, and outlying islands. The Tokyo metropolitan area is one of the world’s largest urban concentrations.
The settlement was formerly called Edo. It became the imperial capital in 1868, when Emperor Meiji moved the imperial court from Kyoto and the city was renamed Tokyo, meaning “eastern capital.” The Imperial Palace occupies the site of the former Edo Castle.
Tokyo has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1964 and 2020; the latter Games were held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kyoto remains an important cultural and historical centre, but it has not been Japan’s national capital since the imperial move to Tokyo.