Kōtō


Kōtō is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Kōtō City in English. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 488,632, and a population density of 12,170 persons per km². The total area is approximately 40.16 km².
Kōtō is located east of the Tokyo metropolitan center, bounded by the Sumida River to the west and the Arakawa River to the east. Its major districts include Kameido, Kiba, Kiyosumi, Monzen-nakachō, Shirakawa, and Toyosu. The waterfront area of Ariake is in Kōtō, as is part of Odaiba.

Etymology

"Kōtō" means "East of River" in Japanese.

Geography

Kōtō occupies a position on the waterfront of Tokyo Bay sandwiched between the wards of Chūō and Edogawa. Its inland boundary is with Sumida. Much of the land is reclaimed, The northern part is old reclaimed land, and the elevation is very low（below sea level）. The southern part is relatively new. and it has 3-5m elevation, but there are few old temples or shrines.
Noteworthy places in Kōtō include:
The western part of the ward was formerly part of Fukagawa Ward of Tokyo City. It suffered severe damage in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, and was heavily bombed during World War II. The special ward was founded on March 15, 1947 by the merger of the wards of Fukagawa and Jōtō.

Districts

There are 45 districts in Koto:
;Fukagawa Area
;Jōtō Area

Rail

Companies with headquarters in Koto include Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, Ibex Airlines, Fujikura, and Maruha Nichiro.
Sony operates the Ariake Business Center in Kōtō. The broadcasting center of WOWOW is in Koto.
Seta Corporation was headquartered in Kōtō.

Government

The main city office for Kōtō City is located in Toyo. There are branch offices located in Shirakawa, Tomioka, Toyosu, Komatsubashi, Kameido, Ojima, Sunamachi and Minamisuna.

Notable places

Colleges and universities

Public elementary and middle schools are operated by the Koto City Board of Education. Public high schools are operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education.
International schools are independently owned and operated.
As of April 20, 1989, Kōtō became the Sister City of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.