Life is ... Soccer and Things!: Capitals of Countries Series: Asian Edition

1. Tokyo, Japan

Capital: Tokyo

Country: Japan

Japan is an East Asian island country. The Japanese archipelago comprise of 6,852 islands with Tokyo as its capital. It is the 11^th most populous country. The Greater Tokyo Metropolis is the world’s most densely populated metropolitan. This region has 37.4 million habitants. Japan is renown for its science and art. It has significant roots in automotive and electronic sectors throughout the world with leading companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sony, Samsung and Nissan to name a few. In the field of art, animation and manga are amongst the leading trends.

About Tokyo:

Tokyo Metropolis is the capital of Japan. But this metropolis was once just a fishing village known as Edo. Looking back to history, in 1600, the great commander Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara which secured Edo’s status as the most important place in Japan. In 1657, a great fire ignited burning down 70% of the city as the structures were made of wood and paper. Over 100,000 residents lost their life.

However, this didn’t stop the growth in population and by mid-19^th century, Edo became home to millions. Japan had military Shogunate system for governance for 700 years, which was abolished during this period. A new government was formed and the capital of japan was renamed as Tokyo. During this time, Japan also opened doors to foreign trade.

During WWII, Tokyo was massively bombarded by USA between 1942 till 1945 which lead to loss of life in millions and many more lost their homes. It took almost a decade for Japan to get back on its feet on economical grounds.

Today, Tokyo has advanced technological resources, including robots to help tourists and in the field of customer services. Tokyo has higher concentration of retired individuals, than young working population. Hence, the government is working on reliance on technology to bridge the human resource requirement.

Tokyo heavily relies on subways and trains for transportation. Taxis are available but are rather expensive and cable cars are available for traveling within a locality. People also prefer to walk or opt for a cycle as train travel could be dense with massive over-crowding during peak hours. They even have a ‘Oshiya’ or pusher, who are typically train staff, who push passengers onto the trains.

Japanese Bullet Trains (Shinkansen) are prominently known across the globe for its speed. Traveling at maximum speeds of 240–320 km/h (150–200 mph), these bullet trains connect far away cities to Tokyo for commercial growth.

The city of Tokyo has many Michelin star restaurants that are especially famous for their Sushi and are extremely expensive. Fish has been a prominent part of Japanese cuisine since ancient and when American President Barak Obama visited Tokyo, he too had Sushi. As for fast food culture, the metropolis has around 300 Starbucks stores which overtakes London with 260 stores. They also have a massive range of vending machines that dispense everything from food to umbrella. They also have a vending machine for puppies.

Tokyo is a beach city located on the central pacific coast. Hence, its boundaries are shared with many islands. The city is also prone to massive earthquakes and volcanic activities. The buildings constructed are smaller than most skyscrapers found it other prominent cities as these structures are more cautious to seismic anomalies. They have also invented the Capsule Hotels. This facility includes a bed and internet connection, yet it costs around $30 to $50 per night. Mostly these hotels accept only male tenants for safety reasons.

Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, thus becoming the first Asian city to host the Summer Games. Tokyo was also supposed to host Olympics 2020 between 24 July and 9 August 2020, however, it is postponed to July-August, 2021 amidst Covid-19 pandemic. Tokyo will still continue to be the host due to commercial purposes.