Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan.
It is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture.
The city lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu.
As of May 2020, the population of Yokohama is about 3.8 million people.
The city covers a total area of 437 square kilometers (169 square miles).
For most of history, Yokohama was an unnoticed fishing village called Kanagawa.
Its fate changed in 1853–54, when the American fleet under Commodore Matthew Perry arrived off the coast to persuade Japan to open to foreign trade – in 1858 this little village was designated an international port.
The area flourished with the growth of Japan’s foreign trade and shipping.
The city was officially incorporated on April 1, 1889.
Basic municipal services (water, electricity, and gas) were installed beginning in the late 1880s.
The city grew rapidly, becoming one of the country’s major ports and trading centres.
Yokohama was destroyed by the great Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake and subsequent fire in September 1923.
The city was devastated yet again by Allied air raids in 1945, during World War II.
During the American occupation, Yokohama was a major transshipment base for American supplies and personnel, especially during the Korean War.
The late 20th century saw redevelopment of the harbour area, including some fancy skyscrapers.
Today, Yokohama is one of the most important industrial and commercial cities in Japan.
Minato Mirai 21 often known as simply Minato Mirai and abbreviated as MM, is the central business district of Yokohama,. Initially developed in the 1980s, Minato Mirai 21 was designed as a large master-planned development and new urban center planned to connect Yokohama’s traditionally important areas and commercial centers of Kannai and the Yokohama Station area.
The Yokohama Landmark Tower is located in Minato Mirai 21. It is the second tallest building and 4th tallest structure in Japan, standing 296.3 meters (972 feet) high. The building contains a five-star hotel which occupies floors 49–70, with 603 rooms in total. The lower 48 floors contain shops, restaurants, clinics, and offices. On the 69th floor there is an observatory, Sky Garden, from which one can see a 360-degree view of the city, and on clear days Mount Fuji.
The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is a historical building that is used as a complex that includes a shopping mall, banquet hall, and event venues. It was originally used as customs buildings, and has two sections: Warehouse No.1 and No.2.
Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise is an amusement park consisting of an aquarium, shopping mall, hotel, marina and amusement rides. It is a pay-as-you-go theme park, having no gates or admission charges. Visitors have the option of buying a day pass or paying for each attraction separately. With about 5 million visitors per year, it ranks sixth among Asian amusement parks in terms of attendance.
Yokohama Cosmo World is a theme park. It contains the Cosmo Clock 21, formerly the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. There are also several children’s attractions, plenty of food stalls and both indoor and outdoor game areas.
The Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum is a food court which opened in 1994. The “museum” , or rather, food court, is devoted to the Japanese ramen noodle soup and features a small recreation of Tokyo in the year 1958, the year instant noodles were invented. Within the museum are branches of famous ramen restaurants from Kyushu to Hokkaido.
CupNoodles Museum Yokohama is a museum dedicated to instant noodles and Cup Noodles, as well as its creator and founder, Momofuku Ando. It features four stories of exhibitions and attractions.
Yokohama Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in Japan and it is one of the largest in the world. Its history is about 160 years long. Today only a few Chinese people still live in Chinatown, but it has a population of about 3,000 to 4,000.
Sankei-en is a traditional Japanese-style garden in Naka Ward, Yokohama, which opened in 1906. Sankei-en was designed and built by Tomitaro Hara, known by the pseudonym Sankei Hara, who was a silk trader. Almost all of its buildings are historically significant structures bought by Hara himself in locations all over the country, among them Tokyo, Kyoto, Kamakura, Gifu Prefecture, and Wakayama prefecture.
Yokohama literally means “horizontal beach”.
Yokohama was the scene of many notable firsts for Japan including the growing acceptance of western fashion, photography by pioneers such as Felice Beato, Japan’s first English language newspaper, the Japan Herald published in 1861 and in 1865 the first ice cream and beer to be produced in Japan.
In 1872 Jules Verne portrayed Yokohama, which he had never visited, in an episode of his widely read novel Around the World in Eighty Days, capturing the atmosphere of the fast-developing, internationally oriented Japanese city.
The 2002 FIFA World Cup final was held in June at the International Stadium Yokohama.