How well do you know Tokyo?
No sushi, no Shibuya crossing, no cherry blossoms. These six questions explore the numbers, engineering and far-flung islands behind the world's largest metropolitan area.
Did you know?
- Some Tokyo stations play departure melodies linked to their area. Takadanobaba Station, home to the studio founded by manga artist Osamu Tezuka, plays the theme from Astro Boy. The tunes are designed to be pleasant rather than alarming, and they help regular passengers recognise their stop without looking up.
- The Ogasawara Islands have never been connected to a continent, so many of their plants, snails and insects evolved in isolation and live nowhere else. Because of this, they are sometimes called the 'Galápagos of the Orient', and visitors must follow strict rules to avoid bringing in seeds or pests.
- When Tokyo's wholesale fish market moved from Tsukiji to Toyosu in 2018, the busy outer market at Tsukiji stayed behind. Its small shops and food stalls still sell knives, dried fish and street food, while early risers at Toyosu can watch the famous tuna auctions from a viewing deck.
The city behind the skyline
Tokyo was a castle town called Edo until 1868, when the emperor moved there from Kyoto and it was renamed Tokyo, meaning 'eastern capital'. Today the Tokyo Metropolis includes 23 special wards, dozens of cities, towns and villages to the west, and chains of islands stretching far into the Pacific. The wider metropolitan area, home to around 37 million people, is usually counted as the most populous in the world, yet its streets are known for being orderly, clean and quiet.
A city that runs on rails
Most Tokyo residents commute by train rather than car. The Yamanote Line loops around the city centre, linking major hubs such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo and Ueno, with trains arriving every few minutes. Many stations play short platform melodies, called hassha melodies, before doors close, and some choose tunes linked to their neighbourhood. Punctuality is taken very seriously, and a train more than a few minutes late is treated as a genuine disruption rather than a normal part of the day.
Built to survive earthquakes
Tokyo sits in one of the most earthquake-prone regions on Earth. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the fires that followed destroyed much of the city, leading to wider streets and stricter building rules. Modern skyscrapers use flexible frames and dampers that absorb shaking. Tokyo Skytree has a central concrete column that is only loosely linked to the outer frame, an idea inspired by the central pillar of traditional five-storey pagodas, which have rarely collapsed in earthquakes.
Water above and below
Tokyo's rivers once flooded low-lying districts during typhoons, so the city built one of the world's most ambitious flood-control networks. Beneath its streets run huge storage tunnels and reservoirs that fill during heavy rain and empty slowly afterwards. The waterfront has changed too. Large parts of Tokyo Bay, including the Odaiba area, are land reclaimed from the sea, and in 2018 the city's famous wholesale fish market moved from Tsukiji to a new site on reclaimed land at Toyosu.