Tokyo started to expand after Tokugawa Ieyasu created the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. The city was originally named Edo and quickly grew in population and influence over the next 200 years. In 1868, after the Meiji restoration, Tokyo became the capital of Japan. During the Meiji era, Tokyo established the first telecommunications and zoological gardens. The city started to recover from material damage after the Second World War. Later in the 1970s, the city’s economic expansion was halted by the oil crisis and pollution. However, Tokyo overcame the crisis and, since the 2000s, has become one of the world’s largest cities.
Osaka is located on alluvial deposits of two rivers, which are known as Yamato and Yodo. The first mentions of the city date from the 5th century. Originally called Naniwa, it connected major cities in Japan by establishing a port. The port of Naniwa served as the source of Japan’s naval explorations. The city changed its name to Osaka and started to expand after Toyotomy Hideoshi constructed the Osaka Castle. Tokugawa forced the Toyotomy clan out of the area in 1615, and the city started to develop as engineers and merchants settled in. Since then, the city has served as the commercial center of Japan.
Increased oil prices and an inability to keep up with them triggered the Latin American debt crisis in the 1980s. Asian countries, most notably Japan, were able to reduce the impact of the crisis by investing in technological research. Japan has attempted to decrease its reliance on oil by implementing more efficient energy sources such as nuclear power plants. As a result, Asian countries’ energy policies reduced the amount of foreign debt and achieved economic growth.