Flag of Tokyo
Officially Tokyo Metropolis
Locally Tōkyō-to · 東京都
What the flag looks like
A white six-rayed sun with a hollow center on a deep purple field.
What it means
The emblem, made for Tokyo City in 1889, weaves the characters 日本東京 ("Japan, Tokyo") into a sun shining in six directions; the purple is Edo murasaki, the color of old Edo.
How to remember it
Tokyo
flies a white six-rayed sun on Edo purple; Gunma's
white emblem on purple is three crescents.
Fun facts
- The metropolitan government sits in Shinjuku; Tokyo has had no single capital city since Tokyo City merged into the metropolis in 1943.
- The flag was adopted on 1 October 1964, days before the Tokyo Olympics opened.
Tokyo at a glance
- Type
- Metropolis (to)
- Island
- Honshū
- Capital
- Shinjuku
- Region
- Kantō
- Population
- 14 million
- Area
- 2,194 km²
- Languages
- Japanese
- Currency
- Japanese yen (¥)
- Flag adopted
- 1964
Flags often confused with Tokyo
- Gunma: Gunma and Tokyo both have a white emblem on purple. Gunma's is three crescents around a small character; Tokyo's is a sun with six rays and a hollow center.