What is the capital of Japan?
Tokyo is the capital of Japan. The greater Tokyo area, with about 37 million people, is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.
Tokyo was a fishing village called Edo until the 1600s, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shoguns, Japan's military rulers. In 1868, after the Meiji Restoration, the emperor moved there from Kyoto, and the city was renamed Tokyo, meaning eastern capital.
Tokyo is home to the Imperial Palace, the National Diet (Japan's parliament) and the headquarters of many major companies. Famous areas include Shibuya, with its busy scramble crossing, Shinjuku, Asakusa with the Senso-ji temple, and the Tokyo Skytree, one of the tallest towers in the world.
The former capital
Kyoto was Japan's capital for more than a thousand years, from 794 to 1868. Its temples, shrines and gardens make it one of the country's most popular destinations. Nara served as an earlier capital before Kyoto.
Did You Know?
Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964 and again in 2021, after the 2020 Games were postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.