Chiyoda (Japanese:千代田区,Hepburn:Chiyoda-ku,IPA:[tɕijoda]ⓘ), known asChiyoda City in English,[2] is aspecial ward ofTokyo, Japan. Located in the heart of Tokyo's 23 special wards, Chiyoda consists ofthe Imperial Palace and a surrounding radius of about a kilometer (1000 yards), and is known as the political and financial center of Japan. As of October 2020, the ward has a population of 66,680, and a population density of 5,709 people per km2 (14,786 per sq. mi.), making it by far the least populated of the special wards. The residential part of Chiyoda is at the heart ofYamanote, Tokyo's traditional upper-class residential area, withBanchō,Kōjimachi, andKioichō considered the most exclusive neighbourhoods in the entire city. The total area is 11.66 km2 (4½ sq. mi.), of which the Imperial Palace,Hibiya Park,National Museum of Modern Art, andYasukuni Shrine take up approximately 2.6 km2 (1 sq. mi.), or 22%.
Chiyoda is known as the economic center of Japan; the districts ofOtemachi,Marunouchi andYurakucho east of the palace (an area colloquially known as "Daimaruyu") house the headquarters of 19Fortune 500 companies, is the source of roughly 10% of the combined revenue of all Japanese companies,[3] and produced the equivalent of around a quarter of the country's GDP in 2017.[4] With a day population of around 850,000, its day/night population ratio is by far the highest of all municipalities in Japan.Tokyo Station, Tokyo's maininter-city rail terminal and the busiest train station in Japan in terms of scheduled trains, is also located in Chiyoda.
Chiyoda is also the political center of the country.[5] Chiyoda, literally meaning "field of a thousand generations", inherited the name from the Chiyoda Castle, the other name forEdo Castle, which is the site of the present-day Imperial Palace. With the seat of theEmperor in the Imperial Palace at the ward's center, many government institutions, such as theNational Diet, thePrime Minister's Official Residence, theSupreme Court,ministries inKasumigaseki, and agencies are also located in Chiyoda, as are Tokyo landmarks such as Yasukuni Shrine and theNippon Budokan. Other notable neighborhoods of Chiyoda includeAkihabara,Iidabashi andKanda.
The ward was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kanda andKōjimachi wards followingTokyo City'stransformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Chiyoda ward exhibits contrastingShitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural divisions. The Kanda area is in the core ofShitamachi,[6] the original commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the western part of the Kōjimachi area typically represents a Yamanote district.
At the tip ofMusashino plateau, Chiyoda is located at the very heart of former Tokyo City in eastern mainland Tokyo. The central area of the ward is furthermore occupied by theImperial Palace. The east side of the ward, borderingChūō, is the location ofTokyo Station. The south side, borderingMinato, encompassesHibiya Park and theNational Diet Building. It is almost exclusively occupied by administrations and agencies. The west and northwest are primarily upper class residential; theYasukuni Shrine is also there. The "high lantern" of Kudanzaka slope was not originally built as a lighthouse, but was built as a lantern for the Shrine. Originally steep and with steps, the slope was considerably softened during remediation after the Kanto earthquake.[7] To the north and northeast of the ward are several residential neighborhoods and theAkihabara commercial district.
For theMetropolitan Assembly, Chiyoda forms a single-member electoral district. It had been represented by Liberal Democrats for 50 years until the landslide2009 election when then 26-year-old Democratic newcomer Zenkō Kurishita unseated 70-year-old former Metropolitan Assembly president and six term assemblyman, Liberal Democrat Shigeru Uchida.[8] In the2013 election, no Democrat contested the seat and Uchida won back the district against a Communist and two independents.
On December 31, 2001, Chiyoda had 6,572 buildings which were four stories or taller.[2]
Some of the districts in Chiyoda are actually not inhabited, either because they are parks (Hibiya Koen), because they consist only of office buildings (Otemachi or Marunouchi), and/or because they are extremely small. The area on the eastern side ofAkihabara Station is the location of several districts that cover at most a few buildings.Kanda-Hanaokachō is, for example, limited to theAkihabara Station and theYodobashi Camera store. Understanding theaddress system in the Kanda area can be particularly troublesome for non-locals.
Kōjimachi area (麹町地区), former Kōjimachi Ward (Kōjimachi-ku)
Kojimachi, a former merchant area along the Shinjuku-Dori avenue, upper-class residential with a couple of offices. Home to the Portuguese, Irish and Belgian embassies.
TheBanchō area (nowadays consisting of six neighborhoods, from Ichibancho to Rokubanchō, and historically including Fujimi as well as the western sides ofKudanminami andKudankita), an upper class residential area, home of the embassies of Belgium, Paraguay, Luxembourg, the UK, Israel and theApostolic Nunciature.
Chiyoda - "1-1 Chiyoda, Chiyoda-ku" is the official address of the Imperial Palace
Kasumigaseki - The nerve center of Japan's administrative agencies
Kioichō - The name, ki-o-i, is a three-kanji acronym consisting of one kanji each from the names of theKishū Domain,Owari Domain, andIi clan, whose daimyō residences were here during theEdo period
Kōkyo Gaien - large open gardens in front of the Imperial palace
Kudanminami andKudankita (九段北) districts, around the station ofKudanshita - Northwest side of the Imperial Palace, home toYasukuni Shrine. It is a prestigious residential and business zone.
Marunouchi - Located betweenTokyo Station and the Imperial Palace, one of Tokyo's traditional commercial centers
The list below consists of the many smaller neighborhoods of the Kanda area, for which a modernization of the addressing system has not been enforced yet except Kanda-Sarugakuchō and Kanda-Misakichō. All officially start with the prefix "Kanda-", but it is sometimes omitted in daily life. Iwamotochō and Kanda-Iwamotochō are different districts (as is the case for Kajichō and Kanda-Kajichō)
East Imperial Garden, located on the eastern portion of theTokyo Imperial Palace grounds and housing the castle tower and the outer defense positions of the formerEdo Castle, opened to the public in 1968.Kitanomaru Park, located on Edo Castle's former northern section, has theTokyo National Museum of Modern Art and the Nippon Budokan, a venue for performances. Chidorigafuchi Boat Arena and Chidorigafuchi Moat Path includes a waterway for boats. National Diet Building Park, located adjacent to the Diet Building and divided in two by a street, includes Americandogwoods planted to symbolize the relations between the United States and Japan. Hibiya Park, Japan's first western-style park, includes restaurants, open-air concert halls, and tennis courts. Imperial Palace Outer Garden, in the front of Nijubashi Bridge, serves as a jogging trail and a tourist site.[11]
Chiyoda office buildings street levelChiyoda office buildings from the Imperial Palace Outer GardenChiyoda office buildingsShueisha headquartersIlluminated facade of a 3-storeyrestaurant in Chiyoda
On October 1, 2001, Chiyoda had 36,233 business establishments with 888,149 employees.[2]
It was created in April 1993 (Heisei 5) as a merger of Chisakura Elementary School (千桜小学校) and Kanda Elementary School (神田小学校), and it also took a portion of the former boundary of Nagatatcho Elementary School (永田町小学校).[91]
It was formed from the merger of the former Kōjimachi Elementary and Nagatacho Elementary School (永田町小学校).[95]
Ochanomizu Elementary School (お茶の水小学校) - Fujimi[96]
It was created in 1993 as the merger of Kinka Elementary School (錦華小学校), Nishikanda Elementary School (西神田小学), and Ogawa Elementary School (小川小学校). The Kinka building became the Ochanomizu Elementary building.[97]
It was established in 1993. It is on the site of the former Horin Elementary School (芳林小学校). It was initially held in the previous Awaji Elementary School (淡路小学校) before its current building opened in 1996.[99]
Chiyoda operates four public libraries; they are the Chiyoda Library, Yobancho Library, Shohei Library, and Kanda Library. Tokyo operates theTokyo Metropolitan Library Hibiya Library. The Japanese government operates theNational Diet Library and theNational Archives. Ishikawa Enterprise Foundation Ochanomizu Library is a nearby private library.[102]
^"Company Outline." Taito Corporation. January 11, 1998. Retrieved on January 30, 2011 "Head Office 2-5-3 Hirakawa-cho,Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 102,JAPAN."Address in Japanese: "東京都千代田区平河町二丁目５番３号"
^会社概要 (in Japanese).Yamato Life. February 5, 2005. Archived fromthe original on February 5, 2005. RetrievedJanuary 20, 2010.
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