Tokyo Government

The Tokyo Government, also known as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (東京都庁), is the main government of the city of Tokyo. Headquartered in Shinjuku, the Tokyo government is designed similar to other major city governments in Japan, with its own governor and 126 other elected officials representing 26 cities and 23 different municipalities.

Overview

Tokyo, as one of the world’s most densely packed areas, has a great deal of capital to work with making its government an important institution on Japan and the rest of the world. It was formed on July 1st, 1943 and reorganized by 1947 to account for all 23 districts.

In 2006, they received almost 7 trillion yen with over 70% of that from income taxes in the city. There are 27,000 different employees working with the governor alone, with another 140,000 working in government sponsored public organizations (such as schools and firefighting).

Organizational Structure

The Governor is in charge of the Tokyo Government, following by the deputy governors and the administrative commissions.

The Vice governors oversee various governor bureaus (which include the bureau of general affairs, the bureau of finance, the bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health, etc.) as well as public enterprise bureaus (the bureau of transportation, the bureau of sewerage, etc.). The Administrative commissions look over the board of education, the auditing inspectors, the expropriation commission, etc.

Major Political Parties

There are 5 major political parties in Tokyo:

• Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (自由民主党)
• Democratic Party of Japan (民主党)
• New Komeito party (公明党)
• Japanese Communist Party (日本共産党)
• Social Democratic Party (社民党)

The Liberal Democratic Party accounts for almost 50% of the current state assembly. The Social Democratic Party does not currently have any seats, while other parties (not listed) account for 8% of the assembly. The Social Democratic Party lost most of their seats in the 2006 election.

Current Government

Governor:

• Shintaro Ishihara

Deputy Governors:

• Kenzi Tanikawa
• Hideo Sugawara
• Kazuhisa Yamaguti
• Naoki Inose

External Links

• Tokyo Government Homepage (Japanese)
• Organization of the Tokyo Government