Editing Tokyo (section)

=== In popular culture ===
[[File:842b Ginza, Tokyo, Japan 1971 (51421452983).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Consumer electronics]] stores in Tokyo in 1971: the 'city lights at night' urban landscape of Tokyo inspired the development of the [[cyberpunk]] genre.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=GIBSON |first=WILLIAM |date=2001-04-30 |title=The Future Perfect |url=https://time.com/archive/6690537/the-future-perfect/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref>]]

Tokyo has long been a popular setting in both Japanese and Western creative works. In literature, the city has featured since the [[Edo period]], while the modern city appears in the works of authors such as [[Natsume Sōseki]] and [[Mori Ōgai]], who depicted life in Tokyo during the industrialization period in famous novels such as ''[[Sanshirō (novel)|Sanshirō]]'' (1908) and ''[[The Wild Geese (Mori novel)|The Wild Geese]]'' (1911). They spent their undergraduate days at [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo University]], and many protagonists of such novels are students who moved to Tokyo for higher education, contrasting Tokyo with their hometowns.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Natsume Sōseki and Modern Japanese Literature |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/natsume-soseki-and-modern-japanese-literature/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=Association for Asian Studies |language=en-US |archive-date=March 11, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250311000513/https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/natsume-soseki-and-modern-japanese-literature/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=森鴎外 |title=雁 |url=https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000129/files/45224_19919.html |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=www.aozora.gr.jp |language=ja |archive-date=January 18, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118094557/https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000129/files/45224_19919.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In later years, writers who have used Tokyo as the setting for their major works include: [[Yasunari Kawabata]], who depicted the 'decadent allure' of Tokyo in the 1930s in his series ''[[The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa]]'' (1930);<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa by Yasunari Kawabata - Paper |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/flyer/books/the-scarlet-gang-of-asakusa/paper |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=www.ucpress.edu |language=en}}</ref> [[Kenzaburō Ōe]], who centred his early works around [[Anpo protests|turbulent political movements]] in the city in the 1960s;<ref>{{Cite web |title=サンデー毎日：「一青年」の文豪が記した岸信介氏に向けた「怒り」 1960（昭和35）年・大江健三郎「安保」寄稿 |url=https://weekly-economist.mainichi.jp/articles/20230403/se1/00m/020/003000d |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=週刊エコノミスト Online |language=ja}}</ref> and [[Haruki Murakami]], who has set many of his works in [[Shinjuku]] and [[Shibuya]], as symbols of youth culture as well as urban loneliness. Western authors have also set their literary works in Tokyo, such as [[Ian Fleming]]'s [[List of James Bond novels and short stories|''James Bond'' series]] novel [[You Only Live Twice (film)|''You Only Live Twice'']] and [[David Mitchell (author)|David Mitchell]]'s ''[[number9dream]]''.

The city has also appeared frequently in film and television. Japanese directors like [[Akira Kurosawa]] and [[Yasujirō Ozu]] have used Tokyo as the backdrop for narratives that examine postwar change and the complexities of modern society. In the ''[[kaiju]]'' (monster movie) genre, landmarks of Tokyo are usually destroyed by giant monsters such as [[Godzilla]] and [[Gamera]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tabata |first=Masahide |year=2005 |title=なぜゴジラは都市を破壊するのか |url=https://www.lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp/UCRC/wp-content/uploads/2005/03/02tabata.pdf |journal=Studies in Urban Cultures |volume=5 |pages=16－29}}</ref> Western films, from earlier examples such as ''[[Tokyo Joe (film)|Tokyo Joe]]'' to more recent titles like ''[[Lost in Translation (film)|Lost in Translation]]'' and ''[[The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift]]'', often depict Tokyo as an exotic urban landscape where cultures intersect. In addition, Tokyo appears frequently in [[anime]], [[manga]] and [[Video game|video games]], where its real and reimagined districts provide the setting for stories ranging from realistic dramas to fantastical adventures.