Tokyo, formally the Tokyo prefecture (東京都; Tokyo-to) is located in the Kanto region on Honshu island, Japan.
The city government offices are located in the ward of Shinjuku. Tokyo Prefecture is sometimes referred to as Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture or Tokyo Metropolitan Area. This stems from the fact that the character used for prefecture for Tokyo differs from the character used for other prefectures. This designation was made in 1943 in order to unify Tokyo City (東京市; Tokyo-shi) and the existing Tokyo Prefecture (東京府; Tokyo-fu) into the nation's capital. Currently, there are no defined city limits of Tokyo-shi, so Tokyo-shi and Tokyo-to are relatively synonomous.