Tokyo - geography.

« room for new facilities and container terminals, and improvements to storage and distribution facilities.

The largest categories of exports from the port of Tokyo aremachinery, automotive parts, and chemical products.

Imports include lumber, machinery, fruits and vegetables, processed foods and beverages, and marine products.

Muchof Tokyo’s trade also goes through the port of Yokohama.

That city has a better natural harbor and was developed after 1858 for the specific purpose of serving Tokyo withforeign trade. The first rail line in Tokyo (and in Japan) was constructed in 1872 to connect the city with the port of Yokohama.

Since then freight and passenger rail networks have grownenormously, and Tokyo has emerged as the national hub for both.

A high-speed passenger rail system known as the shinkansen was inaugurated in 1964.

It is often referred to as the “bullet train” because of the speed and the shape of the locomotive.

The first line connected Tokyo with Ōsaka.

The line now extends southwest to Hakataon the island of Ky ūsh ū, and is known as the T ōkaid ō-San’y ō Shinkansen.

In 1982 the Tohoku Shinkansen and J ōetsu Shinkansen were opened to Morioka in northern Japanand Niigata on the Sea of Japan (East Sea) coast, respectively. Rail and subway lines are extremely important in Tokyo commuting patterns.

Some lines are privately owned, such as Keio and Odakyu, while some are operated bybranches of Japan Railways and the Tokyo government.

In the 23 wards alone, about 27 million passengers use mass transit each day.

Tokyo Station, in Ch ūō Ward, is thecity’s central station for commuters and intercity shinkansen traffic.

It handles some 2500 trains each day and more than 700,000 passengers.

Many other train and subwaystations, in addition to bus routes and taxis, serve the downtown as well.

Tokyo’s busiest station is Shinjuku Station at a key rail interchange on the west side of the city.

Ithandles more than 3 million passengers each day.

Trains are notoriously crowded, especially during morning rush hours, and are often filled to more than double theircapacity.

White-gloved “pushers” are employed to patrol the platforms and shove riders inside jam-packed trains before doors close.

The Yamanote Line is Tokyo’s mostcrowded.

It forms a loop around the inner part of the city and connects 29 stations, including both Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station, along its 34.5-km (22-mi), 60-minute run. Much of the street pattern of Tokyo dates to historic times and is made of narrow, crooked lanes that are unsuitable for heavy use by automobiles.

The radiating highwaysand expressways that were put in to modernize the road network are usually badly overcrowded, and traffic moves at a slow pace.

Parking is a major problem.

A personmust provide proof of an off-street, overnight parking space to own a car in Tokyo. Tokyo’s major airport is the New Tokyo International Airport, also called Narita Airport.

It is located about 65 km (about 40 mi) east of Tokyo in the city of Narita, ChibaPrefecture.

It opened in May 1978 as a replacement for the overcrowded Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport).

Narita Airport is reached by two railways, the NaritaLine and the Keisei Line, as well as limousine bus service.

More than 20 million passengers use this airport each year.

Narita is also important as an air freight port,particularly for imports of fresh foods, magazines, and newspapers.

Haneda Airport, located along Tokyo Bay south of downtown Tokyo, is the city’s primary airport fordomestic travel. Tokyo Metropolis is the media and communications center of Japan.

By the late 1980s the city included many of Japan’s media and communications businesses, despitehaving only about 10 percent of the country’s population.

In the early 1990s some 2,400 monthly and weekly periodicals were being published in Tokyo.

Moreover, thereare eight general newspapers published in the city, as well as three economic and industrial newspapers and seven sports newspapers.

The newspapers with the largestcirculations are Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Asahi Shimbun. Tokyo is also the origin of most television and radio programming in Japan.

In 1990 Tokyo had more telephone lines than any other city in the world. IV POPULATION The 23 special wards that make up what is considered Tokyo proper had an estimated population of 8,339,695 in 2007.

Tokyo Metropolis extends to the west of the centralcity and has a population of 12,361,736 (2007); it is one of the largest urban areas in the world. Crowding is a serious problem, particularly in the 23 wards and close suburbs.

In Tokyo Metropolis the population density is 5,443 persons per sq km (14,097 per sq mi),while in the 23 wards the density is 13,000 persons per sq km (33,670 per sq mi).

By contrast, the average density for Japan as whole, itself a crowded country incomparison to other countries, is 328 persons per sq km (850 per sq mi).

Problems that relate to crowding include traffic congestion, high land prices and rents, air andnoise pollution, lack of open space and greenery, and blocked access to direct sunlight in areas of high-rise construction. Because it is the nation’s capital and economic center, Tokyo attracts migrants from all parts of Japan.

The number of young migrants is particularly large because theycome to Tokyo to attend a college or university and often stay to begin working careers.

Tokyo also has many migrants who come for jobs immediately after finishingsecondary school.

Only about 2 percent of the population is non-Japanese.

The largest foreign groups are Koreans, which account for about one-half of all foreigners,Chinese, Americans, and Filipinos.

Although the foreign population is a small percentage of the total, it exceeds 250,000 and is growing.

The number of guest workers fromdeveloping Asian nations such as the Philippines, Iran, and Bangladesh grew especially quickly during the 1980s and early 1990s, both from legal migration andundocumented workers.

The growing foreign population reflects expansion of Tokyo’s role as a global economic hub. V EDUCATION AND CULTURE Tokyo is Japan’s preeminent educational and cultural center.

Within Tokyo Metropolis are more than 100 public and private universities (one-fourth of the nation’s total),enrolling nearly 30 percent of the nation’s university students.

The most prestigious national university is the University of Tokyo (founded in 1877); two well-known privateuniversities are Keio University (1858) and Waseda University (1882).

Located in the popular Ueno Park are the Tokyo National Museum (1871), which specializes intraditional Japanese art and is the country’s largest art museum; the National Museum of Western Art (1959); and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (1926), whichhouses collections on the modern art of Japan as well as the Film Center, which has a collection of approximately 10,000 Japanese and foreign films.

Also in Ueno Park arethe National Museum of Science (1877), a popular attraction for children and school groups, and the municipal zoo.

The Nezu Art Museum (1959) is in Aoyama.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum, opened in 1993, is in Sumida Ward across the Sumida River from the center of Tokyo.

It features exhibits on the history of the city.

The National DietLibrary (1948), National Archives (1971), and National Museum of Modern Art (1952) are near the Imperial Palace in a district of government buildings. Tokyo is also the national center of performing arts.

The city has numerous theaters in which both traditional forms of Japanese drama (such as nō and kabuki ) and modern dramas are performed.

Several symphony orchestras and many smaller musical organizations perform both Western and traditional Japanese music.

There are also manytheaters in Tokyo showing a large range of Japanese and foreign motion pictures. The cultural life of Tokyo also includes many traditional festivals and celebrations.

In addition to the Kanda Festival, major festivals that draw people from all over Tokyoand beyond include the Sanno Festival at Hie Shrine and the Sanja Festival at Asakusa Shrine.

Other popular celebrations take place at the Meiji Shrine and YasukuniShrine.

There are also many neighborhood festivals at local shrines.

Every year on the last Saturday in July there is an enormous fireworks display over the Sumida Riverthat attracts more than 1 million viewers.

When cherry blossoms bloom in spring, Tokyoites like to gather in parks such as Ueno Park, Inokashira Park, and the ShinjukuGy ōen National Gardens for picnics and strolls under the trees.

Tokyo Disneyland, located close to the eastern boundary of Tokyo Metropolis in Urayasu city in ChibaPrefecture, is another popular attraction. VI HISTORY The site of Tokyo has been occupied since prehistoric times, but it first appeared in history in the 12th century as an obscure village called Edo (“Gate of the Inlet”), locatedwhere the Sumida River joins Tokyo Bay; at that time the waters of the bay and lagoons covered the area that is now the central commercial district.

A fortified castle was. »