Chiyoda, Tokyo
Chiyoda (Japanese: 千代田区, Hepburn: Chiyoda-ku, IPA: [tɕyoda] ⓘ), also known as Chiyoda City in English, is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It consists of the Imperial Palace and a surrounding radius of about a kilometer (1000 yards). 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 total area is 11.66 km² (4½ sq. mi.), of which the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, National Museum of Modern Art, and Yasukuni Shrine take up approximately 2.6 km² (1 sq. mi.), or 22% of the total area.
Chiyoda
千代田区 | |
|---|---|
| Chiyoda City | |
Sakurada-mon of the Imperial Palace with Marunouchi office buildings in the back | |
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Flag Emblem | |
Location of Chiyoda in Tokyo | |
Chiyoda Location in Japan | |
| Coordinates: 35°41′38.41″N 139°45′12.94″E | |
| Country | Japan |
| Region | Kantō |
| Prefecture | Tokyo |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Takaaki Higuchi |
| Area | |
| • Total | 11.66 km2 (4.50 sq mi) |
| Population (October 1, 2020) | |
| • Total | 66,680 |
| • Density | 5,710/km2 (14,800/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+09:00 (JST) |
| City hall address | 1-2-1 Kudanminami, Chiyoda, Tokyo 102-8688 |
| Website | www |
| Symbols | |
| Bird | Cygnus |
| Flower | Sakura |
| Tree | Pinus |
Chiyoda is an economic powerhouse; the small area east of the palace in the districts of Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho (colloquially "Daimaruyu") houses the headquarters of 19 Fortune 500 companies, is the source of roughly 10% of the combined revenue of all Japanese companies, and produced the equivalent of around 1/4th of the GDP of the country in 2017. With a day population of around 850,000, its day/night population ratio is by far the highest of all municipalities in Japan.
Chiyoda is also the political center of the country. Chiyoda, literally meaning "field of a thousand generations", inherited the name from the Chiyoda Castle, the other name for Edo Castle, which is the site of the present-day Imperial Palace. With the seat of the Emperor in the Imperial Palace at the ward's center, many government institutions, such as the National Diet, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Supreme Court, ministries, and agencies are also located in Chiyoda, as are Tokyo landmarks such as Tokyo Station, Yasukuni Shrine and the Budokan. The neighborhood Akihabara is also located in Chiyoda, as are twenty embassies and consulates.
The ward was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kanda and Kōjimachi wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Chiyoda ward exhibits contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural divisions. The Kanda area is in the core of Shitamachi, the original commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the western part of the Kōjimachi area typically represents a Yamanote district.