Pre-Tokugawa period The site of Tokyo has been inhabited since ancient times, and there have been multiple
Paleolithic period (around 40,000–16,000 BC) sites found in present-day Tokyo. During the subsequent
Jomon period, the
Holocene glacial retreat caused sea levels in
Tokyo Bay to rise by 120 cm, with the coastline running along the edge of what is now the
Imperial Palace. Middens such as the
Omori Shell Mounds still mark where the coastline ran in those days. The
Yayoi period, during which agriculture spread across the country, is named after the
Yayoi 2-chōme Site in
Bunkyo, where the first example of
Yayoi pottery was excavated in 1884 by
Shozo Arisaka. In 534, a large-scale conflict was recorded in the region, as a result of which Kasahara no Omi, the victor, was appointed
Kuni no Miyatsuko (provincial governor) by
Emperor Ankan.
Senso-ji in Asakusa was founded in 645. Under the
Ritsuryō system established during the
Asuka period, most of present-day Tokyo was part of
Musashi Province. Following the fall of the
Kingdom of Baekje after the
Battle of Baekgang in the 660s, thousands of refugees were resettled in Musashi. During the
Heian period, Edo was first fortified by the
Edo clan in the late twelfth century, and in 1457,
Ōta Dōkan built
Edo Castle to defend the region from the
Chiba clan. After Dōkan was assassinated in 1486, the Ohgigayatsu branch of the
Uesugi clan took control of the castle and the surrounding area. However, the
Later Hōjō clan replaced them after the Battle of Takanawahara in 1524, only to be defeated by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the
Siege of Odawara in 1590.
1590–1868: Tokugawa period stores in
Nihonbashi, by
Hiroshige, Following the siege of Odawara,
Tokugawa Ieyasu was granted the
Kantō region and moved there from his ancestral land of
Mikawa Province. When he became
shōgun, the
de facto ruler of the country, in 1603, the whole country came to be ruled by Edo. While the
Tokugawa shogunate ruled the country in practice, the
Imperial House of Japan based in
Kyoto was still the
de jure ruler, and the title of shōgun was granted by the Emperor as a formality. During the
Edo period, the city enjoyed a prolonged period of peace known as the
Pax Tokugawa, and in the presence of such peace, the shogunate adopted a stringent policy of seclusion, which helped to perpetuate the lack of any serious military threat to the city. The absence of war-inflicted devastation allowed Edo to devote the majority of its resources to rebuilding in the wake of consistent fires,
earthquakes and other devastating natural disasters, and Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population reaching one million by the 18th century. However, this prolonged period of seclusion ended with the arrival of American Commodore
Matthew C. Perry in 1853. Commodore Perry forced the opening of the ports of
Shimoda and
Hakodate, leading to an increase in the demand for new foreign goods and subsequently a severe rise in inflation. Social unrest mounted in the wake of these higher prices and culminated in widespread rebellions and demonstrations, especially in the form of the "smashing" of rice establishments. Meanwhile, supporters of the Emperor leveraged the disruption caused by widespread rebellious demonstrations to further consolidate power, which resulted in the overthrow of the last Tokugawa shōgun,
Yoshinobu, in 1867 and the end of the
Pax Tokugawa. Despite Edo castle being handed over to the Emperor-supporting forces, some forces loyal to the shogunate kept fighting, ending with the final
Battle of Ueno on July 4, 1868.
1868–1941 After being handed over to the Meiji government, Edo was renamed
Tokyo (Eastern Capital) on September 3, 1868, and the capital was subsequently moved officially from
Kyoto to Tokyo by
Emperor Meiji. The former Edo Castle became the new
Imperial Palace, and Government ministries such as the
Ministry of Finance were relocated to Tokyo by 1871. The 1870s also saw the establishment of other major institutions and facilities such as
Ueno Park (1873), the
University of Tokyo (1877) and the
Tokyo Stock Exchange (1878), as well as the rise of public transportion such as the
first railway line in the country, connecting
Shimbashi (
Shiodome) and
Yokohama (
Sakuragicho). The rapid modernization of the country was driven from Tokyo, with its business districts such as
Marunouchi filled with modern brick buildings and the railway network serving as a means to help the large influx of labour force needed to keep the development of the economy. The
City of Tokyo was officially established on May 1, 1889. The
Imperial Diet, the national legislature of the country, was established in Tokyo in 1889, and it has ever since been operating in the city. headquarters ablaze following the earthquake. The fire triggered by the earthquake caused
fire whirls. On September 1, 1923, the
Great Kanto Earthquake struck the city, and the earthquake and subsequent fire killed an estimated 105,000 citizens. The loss amounted to 37 percent of the country's economic output. On the other hand, the destruction provided an opportunity to reconsider the planning of the city, which had changed its shape hastily after the
Meiji Restoration. The high survival rate of concrete buildings promoted the transition from timber and brick architecture to modern, earthquake-proof construction. The
Tokyo Metro Ginza Line portion between and , the first underground railway line built outside Europe and the American continents, was completed on December 30, 1927. Although Tokyo recovered robustly from the earthquake and new cultural and liberal political movements, such as
Taishō Democracy, spread, the 1930s saw an economic downturn caused by the
Great Depression and major political turmoil. Two attempted military ''coups d'état'' happened in Tokyo, the
May 15 incident in 1932 and the
February 26 incident in 1936. This turmoil eventually allowed the military wings of the government to take control of the country, leading to Japan joining the
Second World War as an
Axis power. Due to the country's political isolation on the international stage caused by its
military aggression in China and the increasingly unstable geopolitical situations in Europe, Тоkуо had to give up hosting the
1940 Summer Olympics in 1938.
Rationing started in June 1940 as the nation braced itself for another world war, while the 26th Centenary of the Enthronement of
Emperor Jimmu celebrations took place on a grand scale to boost morale and increase the sense of national identity in the same year. On December 7, 1941,
Japan attacked the American bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, entering the Second World War against the
Allied Powers. The wartime regime greatly affected life in the city.
1942–1945 In 1943,
Tokyo City merged with
Tokyo Prefecture to form the
Tokyo Metropolis (東京都,
Tōkyō-to), a reorganization aimed to create a more centralized and efficient administrative structure to better manage resources, urban planning, and civil defence during wartime. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government thus became responsible for both prefectural and city functions while administering cities, towns, and villages in the suburban and rural areas. Although Japan enjoyed significant success in the initial stages of the war and rapid expansion of its sphere of influence, the
Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942 marked the first direct foreign attack on Tokyo. Although the physical damage was minimal, the raid demonstrated the vulnerability of the Japanese mainland to air attacks and boosted American morale. Large-scale Allied air bombing of cities in the Japanese home islands, including Tokyo, began in late 1944 when the US seized control of the
Mariana Islands. From these islands, newly developed long-range
B-29 bombers could conduct return journeys. The bombing of Tokyo in 1944 and 1945 is estimated to have killed between 75,000 and 200,000 civilians and left more than half of the city destroyed. The deadliest night of the war came on March 9–10, 1945, the night of the American "
Operation Meetinghouse" raid. Nearly 700,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the east end of the city (
Shitamachi, 下町), an area with a high concentration of factories and working-class houses. Two-fifths of the city was completely burned, more than 276,000 buildings were destroyed, 100,000 civilians were killed, and 110,000 more were injured. Numerous Edo and Meiji-era buildings of historical significance were destroyed, including the main building of the
Imperial Palace,
Sensō-ji,
Zōjō-ji,
Sengaku-ji and
Kabuki-za. Between 1940 and 1945, the population of Tokyo dwindled from 6,700,000 to less than 2,800,000, as soldiers were sent to the front and children were evacuated.
1945–1972 After the war, Tokyo became the base from which the
Allied Occupation Forces, under
Douglas MacArthur, an American general, administered Japan for six years. The original rebuilding plan of Tokyo was based on a plan modelled after the
Metropolitan Green Belt of London, devised in the 1930s but canceled due to the war. However, due to the monetary contraction policy known as the
Dodge Line, named after
Joseph Dodge, the neoliberal economic advisor to MacArthur, the plan had to be reduced to a minimal one focusing on transport and other infrastructure. In 1947, the 35 pre-war special wards were reorganized into the
current 23 wards. Tokyo did not experience fast economic growth until around 1950, when heavy industry output returned to pre-war levels. Starting with the
Kasumigaseki Building (147 metres) in 1968, skyscrapers began to dominate Tokyo's skyline. During this period of rapid rebuilding, Tokyo celebrated its 500th anniversary in 1956 and the
Ogasawara Islands, which had been under control of the US since the war ended, were returned in 1968.
Ryokichi Minobe, a Marxian economist who served as the governor for 12 years starting in 1967, is remembered for his welfare state policy, including free healthcare for the elderly and financial support for households with children, and his 'war against pollution' policy, as well as the large government deficit they caused.
1973–present Although the
1973 oil crisis put an end to the rapid post-war recovery and development of Japan's economy, its became the
world's second-largest economy at the time during that decade, remaining so until 2010 when it was surpassed by
China. Tokyo's development was sustained by its status as the economic, political, and cultural hub of such a country. In 1978, after years of the intense
Sanrizuka Struggle,
Narita International Airport opened as the new gateway to the city, while the relatively small
Haneda Airport switched to primarily domestic flights.
West Shinjuku, which had been occupied by the vast Yodobashi Water Purification Centre until 1965, became the site of an entirely new business district characterized by skyscrapers surpassing 200 metres during this period. The American-led
Plaza Accord in 1985, which aimed to depreciate the US dollar, had a devastating effect on Japan's manufacturing sector, particularly affecting small to mid-size companies based in Tokyo. This led the government to adopt a domestic-demand-focused economic policy, ultimately causing an
asset price bubble. Land redevelopment projects were planned across the city, and real estate prices skyrocketed. By 1990, the estimated value of the
Imperial Palace surpassed that of the entire
state of California. The
Tokyo Stock Exchange became the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, with the Tokyo-based
NTT becoming the most highly valued company globally. After the bubble burst in the early 1990s, Japan experienced a prolonged economic downturn called the "
Lost Decades", characterized by extremely low or negative economic growth, deflation, and stagnant asset prices. Tokyo's status as a world city is said to have depreciated greatly during these three decades. Nonetheless, Tokyo still saw new urban developments during this period. Recent projects include
Ebisu Garden Place,
Tennōzu Isle,
Shiodome,
Roppongi Hills,
Shinagawa, and the
Marunouchi side of
Tokyo Station.
Land reclamation projects in Tokyo have also been going on for centuries. The most prominent is the
Odaiba area, now a major shopping and entertainment center. In the 1990s, various plans were proposed However, the 2020 Olympic Games were postponed and held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Administration==