facts and figures

Land area: 2,186 sq km (for Tokyo's 23 wards)

Population: 8.1m

Governor Shintaro Ishihara

Language: Japanese

Public holidays 2006:
Jan 1st-3rd - New Year
Jan 8th - Coming of Age Day
Feb 11th - National Foundation Day
March 21st - Equinox
April 29th - Greenery Day
May 3rd - Constitution Memorial Day
May 4th - National Holiday
May 5th - Children's Day
July 17th - Marine Day
Sep 8 - Respect for the Aged Day
Sep 23rd - Autumnal Equinox
Oct 9th - Sports Day
Nov 3rd - Culture Day
Nov 23rd - Labour Thanksgiving Day
Dec 23rd - Emperor’s Birthday

Telephone area code: City code: (0) 3; Country code: 81.

Currency:

The Japanese yen comes in the following notes: ¥10,000, ¥5,000, ¥2,000 and ¥1,000. Coins are divided into the following: ¥500, ¥100, ¥50, ¥10, ¥5 and ¥1.

Click for currency converter.

Economic profile:

There has been no shortage of doomsayers in Tokyo in the past 15 years, since the burst of infamous asset price “bubble” and the consequent decade of deflation. But Japan's capital is now in better shape. Business and personal confidence are running at a high level.

The Japanese love to re-build their cities. Forty years ago they revamped much of Tokyo for the l964 Olympics, and the nation duly re-emerged on the international scene. Now the city has once again become a mass of building sites and cranes; over the past five years, skyscrapers have shot up in Shimbashi, Shinagawa, Marunouchi and Roppongi 6-chome.

In the late 1990s, Shibuya played host to high-tech start-ups that helped to rebuild the city’s hopes. But Tokyo’s dotcom revolution was brief—stock prices weakened and then collapsed in late 2000. Looming over everything was Japan’s soaring public debt. Moreover, the government was slow in tackling the perennial problem of the commercial banks’ non-performing loans. Money was short on all sides, and business confidence was hit in spring 2000. This was when Tokyo’s city legislature levied a 3% tax on profits before writing off bad loans on large banks, a step aimed at reducing the city’s deficit. The banks sued the city, however, and won relief from the tax in October 2003—a setback for Governor Shintaro Ishihara.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange touched a 20-year low in April 2003, and rebounded soon after, notably in small company stocks. Foreign investors entered the Japanese market, and morale was boosted by a construction boom. New office buildings and hotels opened in central Tokyo: Mitsubishi opened new towers in Marunouchi; Dentsu, the world's largest ad agency, moved to Shimbashi; Mori Building opened a $4 billion complex in Roppongi; and several new buildings were raised near the station in Shinagawa.

Not all the signs are encouraging. A strong yen is hampering the nation's recovery; homeless men fill Tokyo's main commuter centres; Chinese gangsters supply nightlife areas with heroin imported from North Korea. Founding a new business in Tokyo remains tough, and new ventures are mainly in the service industries, rather than manufacturing, Japan's forte. Still, Tokyo remains a bustling city, with plenty of attractions, new hotels and a vigorous culture. Plans are afoot for “mega-structure” buildings that would top anything seen in Tokyo so far.