Tokyo

Also known as the metropolis of Tokyo, there is 23 wards and 62 municipalities in the Metropolis of Tokyo. Is one of the most overcrowded cities in the world. Tokyo has the largest
metropolitan gross domestic product (GDP) in the whole world, for a city.

Originally a small fishing village called Edo, it was named as the countrys defacto capital in the 1800s; at which point the citys population was already over 1 million inhabitants. Tokyo has the largest metropolitan gross domestic product (GDP) in the whole world, for a city. The total length of Tokyos subway system stands at about 286km, shorter than New Yorks 420km and Londons 356km, however it experiences the most amount of human traffic of all three with more than 7 million people using it daily (average) in comparison New Yorks is about 4.3 million and Londons is about 2.5 million people daily on average. Tokyos total population in 1990 was about 8,163,573 people, currently the population stands at over 28 million people inhabiting the area, more than double the population 22 years ago. It has a population density of 6000/km2 Tokyo is the capital of one of the worlds most stable countries and as a result the economy has boomed with it being the third largest economy worldwide, this has lead on to the citys large boom in population as more people have moved in and reproduced. This is the urban pull factor; people move into the city in anticipation of a better quality of life. This results in the citys population ballooning and the population of the surrounding countryside reducing. This has happened in Tokyo. The baby boomers moving to the urban areas also fuelled the current overcrowding problem in Tokyo The main problems are pollution, major overcrowding (Tokyo is the most densely populated city in the world and is also the largest megacity in terms of population worldwide). There is also an increase in congestion in Tokyo due to the amount of inhabitant commuters with cars. The population of Tokyo has also become more isolated with people living alone; Japan has one of the highest rates of suicide worldwide. The city is also running out of land and is constantly reclaiming land and building on fault lines to accommodate the sprawling metropolis. This means the city is susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis which can claim a lot of lives and cost the economy billions of dollars in infrastructure, business and rebuilding. To manage it the authorities may have to connect Tokyo with the other cities nearby and increase the total official land of the city. They would also have to tackle the acute congestion problem by creating disincentives for the commuters and building more rail and tube links in the city. Ring roads and congestion charges, road management schemes and streamlining of public transport (dedicated bus routes etc) could also help the congestion problem. In terms of overcrowding, not much can be done to reduce the pressure, the government can build more high rise apartments but more people would move from the countryside. The only

sustainable way of managing Tokyo is to provide incentives to counterurbanise; developing the countryside and creating more commuter links with the countryside might relieve some of the chronic lack of living space.