What was Tokyo called before it became the capital of Japan in 1868?
Correct answer to the quiz question
Edo
Before Tokyo became the capital of Japan in 1868, the city was called Edo.
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Before Tokyo became the capital of Japan in 1868, the city was called Edo. At that time, Edo was the political and economic center of the country and the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867. The city was an important commercial and cultural center and grew over the centuries to become one of the largest cities in the world.
In the course of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when Japan wanted to modernize and the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown, the new emperor decided to move the capital from Kyoto, the traditional imperial seat, to Edo. From this point on, Edo was renamed Tokyo, meaning “Eastern Capital”, and symbolized the new era of the Meiji period, in which Japan increasingly embarked on the path of industrialization and modernization.
