Kōtō

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kōtō (江東区) is a special ward of Tokyo, also known as Kōtō City in English. It sits on Tokyo Bay, east of central Tokyo, with the Sumida River to the west and the Arakawa River to the east. Its northern edge borders Sumida ward.

Area and people: about 42.99 square kilometers. Population about 543,700 (roughly 12,650 people per square kilometer).

Major districts include Kameido, Kiba, Kiyosumi, Monzen-nakachō, Shirakawa, and Toyosu. The Ariake waterfront and part of Odaiba are in Kōtō.

Meaning: Kōtō means East of the River.

History and shape: much of the northern land is reclaimed and very low. The western part used to be Fukagawa Ward. Kōtō Ward was created in 1947 by merging Fukagawa and Jōtō wards. The area has a history of canal trade and lumber storage, and it was damaged in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and in World War II bombings.

Notable places: Kiba Park, a large urban park with jogging paths, tennis, a barbecue area, playgrounds, and a park bridge. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) is in Kiba Park; MOT opened in 1995 and was renovated in 2019, housing thousands of works.

Economy and institutions: several companies have headquarters in Kōtō, including Daimaru, Fujikura, and Maruha Nichiro. The Wowow broadcasting center is located in Kōtō, and the Seta Corporation is also based there.

Education: public high schools are run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government; elementary and middle schools are run by the Kōtō City Board of Education. The ward has 46 districts.

Administration: the ward office is in Toyo. Kōtō is a sister city of Surrey, British Columbia, since 1989. The mayor as of December 2023 is Tomoka Okubo.