MIGUEL CHOI

Transportation is a crucial element for any city’s prosperity and development, and Tokyo is no exception. Since the 1950’s, Tokyo’s population began to drastically increase after the Second World War. To provide faster and easier transport throughout a rapidly expanding city, a single government-run railway line, known as the Yamanote Line, circled the region. To this day, this line serves as the main pathway for public transportation. So much so that it comes to prove that even decades ago, subway transportation took an essential role in Tokyo’s development.

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Overtime, however, as Tokyo continued to grow in population and size, more subway lines began to emerge as a color-coded system. Even though this system built off of the pre-existing stations, new stations began to appear along and outside of the Yamanote line. Such lines include the Ginza, Mita, and Yurakucho, which mostly stretch outside of the Yamanote ring, but do intersect and converge within its center.

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Although the subway system of Tokyo has certainly evolved and extended for decades, the construction of both historic and newer railways prove transportation’s essential part in the city’s infrastructure. What began as the Yamanote line would add more to its system with new lines and stations, reinforcing how the city’s railway system, alongside their housings, characterize its inhabitants’ everyday life, culture, and history.