Population of Tokyo

From the humble beginnings of a small fishing village called Edo, Tokyo developed from almost nothing to more than one million people, along with its pre-eminent city during the middle of the 1700’s; it became among the biggest cities in the world at that time.  In 1885, railways started along the Yamanote Line that made possible the fast growth of the city because traffic jamming problems were relieved with each new line erected.  The city continued to rapidly grow and by 1920 the population of Tokyo already had a census of 3,699,428 people. 

This population of Tokyo at that time was in itself astonishing taking into account the countless earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and fires which have leveled the population of Tokyo numerous times since it was founded.  Notwithstanding the city being hit by a great earthquake in 1923, it still swelled up its population to seven million which was at that time the world’s second to New York City.  Because of the war in 1945, the population of Tokyo was half the number to prewar levels. 

At the time and after WW II, the city was ruined and reconstructed once again; around 1960’s the twenty-three wards that made up Tokyo increased population after people started moving to the suburbs in flocks because of contemporary suburban rail systems that smoothly facilitated traveling into Tokyo.  A lot of these people came from Japan’s other parts, and numerous companies moved from Kansai area. 

Beginning 1960’s to about the year 2000, the twenty-three wards slowly lost its population to outer edges, recording only about less than eight million populace from more than 8.6million.  There was a time in 1960’s when the population of Tokyo exceeded that of New York, becoming the most populated metropolis area.  In more recent times, because of land prices significantly falling from its height in 1991, a noteworthy number of residents have moved to the twenty-three wards, and the population of Tokyo is once more rising, presently at more than 8.4 million people.

The prefectures of southern Saitama and Kanagawa suburbs have encountered the most rapid population growth in the past few years, particularly those bordering the twenty-three wards of Tokyo; though the other areas’ population has either been stable or has had a slight fall.  The population in Tokyo is about ten percent of Japan’s total population, and it’s by far the most densely inhabited prefecture and most populous in the whole of Japan.