The
National Capital Region includes Tokyo
and its twenty-three wards (or boroughs) and seven surrounding prefectures,
for the most part governed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, whose main
offices are located in Shinjuku ward. In addition to the administration of Tokyo
itself the Metropolitan Government is also responsible for twenty-six suburban
cities to the west in Tama Area, and a number of small islands which stretch
some one thousand kilometres into the Pacific Ocean. The prefecture of Tokyo
is legislated by the Metropolitan Assembly which consists of 127 elected members.
Elections take place every four years; the next will be in 2009. All major national
political parties are represented in the Tokyo Assembly with the exception of
the Social Democratic Party which lost its seats during the last election. The
Liberal Democratic Party has the majority in the current Assembly.
The author and politician Shintaro Ishihara
has been the governor of Tokyo since 1999. He is a controversial figure, famous
for criticising the United States, China and the central government, and for
once having said that Japan "is the only non-Caucasian society to have created
a modern superpower." Just two months before graduating from university Ishihara
won Japan's most prestigious literary prize for his novel Season of the Sun.
The book was made into a film and both Ishihara and his brother Yujiro, who
played a supporting role, found themselves at the centre of a youth-oriented
cult. His distinguished political career began with his election to the House
of Councillors in 1968, and his literary works have continued to be published
since that time. Two of his four sons are also in politics and hold seats in
the House of Representatives.