The 1923 earthquake and World War II destroyed most older buildings, so modern and contemporary architecture dominates an increasingly high-rise skyline. Known then as Edo, the ruling Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu made it his headquarters in 1603. The capital of Japan since 1869, the Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 39 million residents and 23 special wards, each governed as an individual city. See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan Times, Japan Travel, Stop Covid-19, TravelBans/Japan, and Tokyo Metropolitan Govrnment, websites for news updates.
