Tokyo

Tokyo (東京, Tokyo ?, literally "eastern capital"), formerly Edo (江 戸?), Is the administrative capital of Japan since 1868, as the residence of the Emperor of Japan, the Prime Minister, the seat of the Diet (Japan's parliament), the Cabinet, all ministries that constitute and all foreign embassies. This status, however, is not defined in the Constitution of 1947 and is the main political center of the archipelago since the seventeenth century.

Become World Financial Centre in 1990, behind New York City is characterized by its skyscrapers, shopping for electronics and high technology, but also for the many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, and its neighborhoods and streets atmospheres special.

Tokyo Metropolitan prefecture (東京 都, Tōkyō-to?), With about twelve million people, has a special administrative status among Japanese prefectures. The Tokyo metropolitan area that extends well beyond the limits of the prefecture, radiates a large part of Tokyo Bay, as well as the region of Kanto. With about 37.7 million inhabitants, it forms the world's most populous urban area.

Having already hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964, the Tokyo will host again in 2020.

In Japanese, the name of the city written 東京.

In French, we do not pronounce the name of the city as in Japanese and it is generally written "Tokyo" which is the French pronunciation /to.kjo/. The old spelling Tokio that was used in French in the early twentieth century, is still used in German and Spanish as well as Esperanto (among others).

For France, the Order of 4 November 1993 on the terminology of names of states and capitals, issued jointly by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Education, recommends as the only spelling Tokyo. It's the same place names of the Committee of the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) 2 and Interinstitutional style of the EU3. The Japanese themselves sometimes use the spelling Tokyo in their transcription in romaji name of ville4.

The phonetic Latin alphabet according to Hepburn method gives Tokyo, the ō with macron indicating a long o. This method of transcription is used in japonais5 transport and in most encyclopedias and dictionaries francophones6. The method gives Kunrei Tokyo and JSL method Tookyoo. The Japanese government also allows the use of the spelling "Tohkyoh" on passports, taking a representation of long vowels familiar to English speakers. Finally we should mention the so-called Wāpuro romaji writing Toukyou method.

Its ancient name is Edo (江 戸?) "Gate of the river", referring to the Sumida River running through it. When Emperor Meiji moved there in 1868, it was renamed Tokyo, meaning "eastern capital 京 東" as opposed to Kyoto (京都?, Literally "capital city"), the ancient capital.

In French, the people of Tokyo are called "Tokyotes" or "Tokyoites". The Japanese also mean men in Tokyo by the expression Azumaotoko (東 男?, Literally "Easterner"). The term edokko (江 戸 っ 子?, Literally "child of Edo"), designating historically native of the city when it was still called Edo, is still used to describe the "Tokyoites native" whose ancestors were themselves born in one of the districts of the Japanese capital over several generations, and show a certain identity, characterized by still use today of certain expressions and accent born of the former local dialect, the Edokotoba, and symbolized by Isshin Tasuke (figure of popular fiction), the character of Tora-san film Otoko wa yo tsurai or by the dog Hachikō.

For central Tokyo, you can hear the 23 special wards. In a narrower sense, the term can refer to the 10 boroughs surrounded by the Yamanote Line a large circular train: Minato, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Toshima, Kita, Arakawa, Taito, Chiyoda and Bunkyo (the only n be not directly served by the line). More closely the center can refer to the three most central districts that make up the historic heart of the old Edo, namely Chūō (whose name means literally "center" in Japanese), Minato ("port" history, as the name suggests) and Chiyoda, and residents of neighborhoods Sumida River (Nihonbashi, Kanda, Ueno, Asakusa, Honjo, Fukagawa). Central Tokyo is traditionally distinguished into two parts: Shitamachi and Yamanote.

First southwest "Yamanote" (山 の 手?, Literally "hand of the Mountain", which means "mountain side" or "high city") which included the Edo period the homes of the aristocracy around residence shoguns in Edo Castle, which corresponds to the districts of Shinjuku, Bunkyo, Minato and partly those of Chiyoda (around the current Imperial Palace, or the southern suburbs) and Chūō (the limit west of the district ") 8.9.

On the other hand, north-east, Shitamachi (下町?, Literally "low city") refers to the old class neighborhoods and the former commercial center and craftsmanship of old Tokyo and includes the coastal areas of the Sumida River namely those Kanda (north of Chiyoda), Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi (East Chūō) Shitaya (now Ueno) and Asakusa (district of Taito), Honjo (west of Sumida) and Fukagawa (western koto) 10. If the historical social and functional distinction no longer exists, the two terms are still used today in a geographical sense or identity for the people of both sides, to differentiate the north and south of downtown.

Most historic buildings in Tokyo are located in this area, especially in the rich religious buildings in Asakusa district, which mostly Buddhist temple Senso-ji (Dedicated to the Bodhisattva Kannon, this is the oldest temple Tokyo11 , originally built in 645, and former guardian temple dynasty Shogun Tokugawa12, it was partly destroyed by American bombing in 1945 but rebuilt exactly, its gates, called Hōzōmon are the only monuments of the Metropole be classified as national Treasure). Asakusa Shinto shrines (dedicated to the founders of the temple, one of the busiest in the city, and one of the few to have survived completely the earthquake of 1923 and the American bombings of 1945 and dating from 1649) and Kume no Heinai-dō (dedicated to Kume no Heinai, a samurai of the seventeenth century, destroyed in 1945 but rebuilt in 1978). Other important monuments are the Tokyo Edo Castle and current Kôkyô (a few walls and moats are remnants of the original fortress of the fifteenth century) Zojo-ji (Buddhist temple in Amida Buddha and former principal mausoleum of Tokugawa Shogun at Shiba in the district of Minato), the five-tiered pagoda Ueno Zoo or the Nihonbashi (famous bridge dating from the seventeenth century in the neighborhood of the same name and the district of Chūō, it marked the point start of Tōkaidō, the main road connecting Edo to Kyoto, and which is still used today point 0 mileage Japanese roads).