Name: 東京是如何成為地球上最大城市的？ (How Did Tokyo Become The Largest City On Earth?)
Uploaded: 2025-11-13T17:13:49.000Z
Duration: 8 min 55 s

東京，我們星球上最大的城市。

程度副詞

It's almost impossible to totally understand how vast Tokyo is with over 41 million people.

要完全理解擁有超過 4100 萬人口的東京有多麼龐大，幾乎是不可能的。

Imagine that you take the entire population of Canada and you cram them into a single city.

想像一下，你把整個加拿大的總人口塞進一個城市裡。

Anthony Bourdain once said, There's 15 or 20 different Manhattans in Tokyo.

安東尼·波登曾說過，東京有 15 到 20 個不同的曼哈頓。

It's time for you to understand how Tokyo became the world's biggest city.

現在是時候讓你瞭解東京是如何成為世界第一大城的了。

If you're standing in the center of Tokyo, let's say at the Shibuya crossing, how long would it take you to walk from there to the lower density suburban part where people live like this, and

如果你站在東京市中心，假設在澀谷交叉路口，從那裡走到人們像這樣居住的低密度郊區，需要走多久？

then finally out to the rural area where it starts looking more like this.

然後最終走到看起來更像這樣的地方。

I went to Google Maps and I looked around to find the closest big green areas to the center of Tokyo, the ones that didn't look like parks.

我去 Google Maps 看了看，試圖找到離東京市中心最近的、看起來不像公園的大片綠地。

然後我找到了它們，大概在這裡。

That would be a 30 mile, 11 hour walk from the center.

這將是一趟從市中心出發、長達 30 英里、耗時 11 小時的步行。

And even once you get to those areas, there's still a lot of city beyond them.

而且就算你走到那些區域，它們外面還有很多城市。

If you wanted to get to the mountains, that would again be another 11 hour walk.

如果你想走到山區，那又會是另一趟 11 小時的步行。

How the hell do people get around a city of this scale?

在這個規模的城市裡，人們到底怎麼移動啊？

More than half of the 41 million people in the Tokyo metro area use public transport every single day.

東京都會區 4100 萬人口中，超過一半的人每天都搭乘大眾運輸工具。

To be a city this large, you have to be able to get around without sitting in traffic too much.

一個這麼大的城市，必須能夠順暢移動，才不會塞在車陣裡太久。

And the traffic in Tokyo can be biblical.

而東京的交通壅塞程度簡直是史詩級的。

Public transport within Greater Tokyo is dominated by the world's most extensive urban rail network.

大東京地區的大眾運輸，主要由世界上最廣泛的城市鐵路網絡所主導。

This is the rail network for la, Rome, Delhi, and

這是洛杉磯、羅馬、德里的鐵路網絡，還有

watch what happens when we overlay the Tokyo rail network.

看看我們疊加東京的鐵路網絡後會發生什麼。

Shinjuku Station in central Tokyo is the world's busiest railway station, certified by Guinness World Records.

東京新宿車站是世界上最繁忙的車站，並獲得金氏世界紀錄認證。

The entire population of Berlin or Los Angeles moves through this station every day.

每天有整個柏林或洛杉磯的人口經過這個車站。

With over 200 different spots to enter and exit, this station is nauseatingly complicated even for the most efficient public transport system in the world.

這個車站有多達兩百多個出入口，即使是世界上最高效的大眾運輸系統，也會感到頭昏眼花。

With that many people, no matter how many trains you have, some of them are going to get pretty crowded.

這麼多人，不管有多少班列車，有些都會變得非常擁擠。

Most big cities have a central downtown area where everyone goes and where everything converges.

大多數大城市都有一個中央市中心區域，每個人都會去那裡，所有事物都會匯聚於此。

All of the business, all the shopping, all of the culture.

所有的商業、所有的購物、所有的文化。

But Tokyo is so big that many different areas feel themselves like their own.

但東京太大了，許多不同的區域都感覺像自己的市中心。

Downtown, you can be in Shinjuku feels like downtown.

在市中心，你在新宿感覺就像在市中心。

Then hop on the Metro and go 45 minutes in one direction, get out, still feels like downtown.

然後搭乘地鐵往一個方向搭四十五分鐘，出來後，感覺仍然像市中心。

Hop on the metro again, 45 minutes in another direction, and yep, you're still in downtown.

再搭乘地鐵往另一個方向搭四十五分鐘，然後，你還是在市中心。

Many districts of Tokyo specialize into a specific kind of Culture or vibe.

東京的許多區域都專精於某種特定文化或氛圍。

Akihabara is the anime town, a major hub for otaku culture, video games, anime, manga and electronics.

秋葉原是動漫之城，是宅文化、電玩、動漫、漫畫和電子產品的主要中心。

The streets in Akihabara are filled with everything anime culture, and

秋葉原的街道充滿了動漫文化的各種元素，

you'll see cosplayers on the sidewalks all the time.

而且你隨時都會在人行道上看到Cosplayer。

Harajuku is the center of Japanese youth culture.

You'll see people here wearing all different types of alternative fashion.

你會在這裡看到人們穿著各種不同風格的另類時尚。

It's filled with Buddhist temples, traditional craft shops and traditional festivals.

這裡充滿了佛教寺廟、傳統工藝品店和傳統節慶。

It has a 12 story Uniqlo, high end department stores, and

這裡有十二層樓的 Uniqlo、高級百貨公司，

people on the street wearing every luxury brand that you can think of.

街上的人們穿著你能想到的所有精品名牌。

In the mid-1970s, the UN started to use the term megacity to refer to urban areas that had more than 10 million people.

在 1970 年代中期，聯合國開始使用「巨型城市」這個詞，來指稱人口超過一千萬的都會區。

New York City became the world's first megacity in the 1930s, but Tokyo quickly surpassed it, and

紐約市在 1930 年代成為全球第一個巨型城市，但東京很快就超越了它，

then surpassed it again, and then again, and then again.

然後又再次超越，又再次，又再次。

Tokyo pioneered many of the systems that we take for granted today.

東京開創了許多我們今天認為理所當然的系統。

In a city of that scale, just ask Jeremy Clarkson.

在這麼大規模的城市裡，問問 Jeremy Clarkson 就知道了。

The meters have infrared sensors, so if you come back and feed them every hour, they know you haven't moved your car.

停車計時器有紅外線感應器，所以如果你回來每小時投幣一次，他們就知道你沒移動過車。

When the traffic's getting sticky, the information is fed to drivers via huge boards located above every major route around the city.

當交通變得壅塞時，資訊會透過設置在城市主要幹道上方的巨大看板傳送給駕駛。

Traffic between Tokyo and Osaka for the tens of millions of people that live there, was getting out of hand.

東京和大阪之間，對於居住在那裡的數千萬人口來說，交通已經失控了。

So they invented the bullet train to fix it.

所以他們發明瞭新幹線來解決這個問題。

This super express that thrusts aside all existing ideas of train speed.

這列超高速列車推翻了所有現有的火車速度觀念。

They also built the world's largest sewer.

他們還建造了世界上最大的下水道。

What's fascinating about all this is that 400 years ago, Tokyo didn't exist.

所有這些令人著迷的是，四百年前，東京還不存在。

Or it did exist, but it was just a fishing village.

或者說它存在，但只是一個漁村。

The Warring States period ended with the victory of the Takagawa Shogunate, unifying all of Japan.

戰國時代隨著德川幕府的勝利而結束，統一了整個日本。

The Takagawa moved their de facto capital to Edo, as a result concentrating all political and economic power of Japan in a single city.

德川家康將他們的實際首都遷至江戶，是以將日本所有的政治和經濟權力集中在一個城市。

As this city grew, it attracted even more powerful people from across the country.

隨著這座城市不斷發展，它吸引了全國各地更多有權勢的人。

Edo was in the perfect location to grow during this period because it was a port city on Japan's largest flat piece of land.

江戶在這個時期擁有絕佳的地理位置來發展，因為它是一個港口城市，坐落在日本最大的平坦土地上。

That meant that there was plenty of food that could be grown in the surrounding area and then easily transported in to the growing hungry population via canals and rivers.

這意味著周邊地區可以種植充足的食物，然後透過運河和河流輕鬆地運送到不斷增長、飢餓的居民手中。

Edo grew so large and so significant that the next 200 years is known to this day as the Edo Period.

江戶的規模和重要性如此之大，以至於接下來的200年至今仍被稱為江戶時代。

Some estimates even put it as the largest city in the world in the 1700s, at over 1 million people.

有些估計甚至將其列為18世紀世界上最大的城市，人口超過100萬。

In the mid-1800s, after 200 years of isolation, Japan opened up to foreign trade and Western ideas, causing rapid social and economic change.

在19世紀中葉，經過200年的鎖國後，日本向外國貿易和西方思想開放，引發了快速的社會和經濟變革。

Edo's name was changed to Tokyo during this period eastern capital, and

在此期間，江戶更名為東京，意為東方首都，

it began to industrialize rapidly, drawing even more rural people into the city to work in the factories.

並開始快速工業化，吸引了更多鄉村人口湧入城市在工廠工作。

Tokyo was becoming a city defined by change.

東京正逐漸成為一座充滿變革的城市。

Change from the fishing village to the capital, change in the form of several great fires that even burned the entire city down multiple times.

從漁村轉變為首都，以及多次燒毀整座城市的幾場大火所帶來的變革。

But in the end, Tokyo always rose back from the ashes.

Looking at Tokyo in the modern day, one of the most common things I see is all the people on social media talking about how cheap it is to live there.

看看現代的東京，我最常看到的就是社群媒體上大家都在討論那裡的生活費有多便宜。

I would say that the cost ling is still much, much cheaper than the US everywhere.

我認為，生活成本普遍還是比美國便宜非常多。

But the thing is, usually these TikTok posts list prices in dollars, US Dollars.

但問題是，這些 TikTok 貼文通常都以美元計價。

Americans especially are used to paying American prices for their food and their re.

尤其是美國人，習慣了為食物和房租支付美國的價格。

So when they fly into Japan and the prices are so much lower in dollars, it's a shock.

所以當他們飛到日本，發現以美元計價的價格低這麼多時，都會感到震驚。

But meanwhile, in general, Japanese salaries are a lot lower.

但同時，總體來說，日本的薪水也低很多。

Added to this is the whiplash of perception of what Japan is today versus what it was like 30 years ago.

加上這個，還有現在的日本和三十年前的日本在觀感上的巨大落差。

Look at how these news reports from the 90s used to talk about it.

看看九零年代的新聞報導都是怎麼說的。

A critical essay on the Japanese challenge to American business.

一篇關於日本對美國商業挑戰的評論文章。

If you're an American business in a high tech industry competing with the Japanese, you are in the business of going out of business.

如果你是高科技產業中，正在和日本競爭的美國企業，你就是在做關門大生意的。

There was a time when Japanese salaries exceeded American ones.

曾經有一段時間，日本的薪水比美國還高。

One out of every three cars sold in America is Japanese.

在美國賣出的汽車中，每三輛就有一輛是日本製造的。

And that, along with the recession, spells big trouble for US Automakers.

這加上經濟衰退，對美國汽車製造商來說是個大麻煩。

But then, over time, Japan stagnated and America well surpassed it in only a few decades.

但後來，隨著時間推移，日本停滯不前，而美國在短短幾十年內就超越了它。