Tokyo Metro (company)
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 東京地下鉄株式会社, Hepburn: Tōkyō Chikatetsu kabushiki gaisha; lit. 'Tokyo Subway Share Company') is a tokushu gaisha (state-owned joint-stock company) jointly controlled by the Government of Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It operates nine subway lines and is also engaged in real estate, retail and education in the Greater Tokyo Area.
Tokyo Metro was privatized and established as a private company on April 1, 2004, succeeding Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) and shifting to a more commercial model while maintaining public service obligations.
In 2024, the company made its initial public offering, raising $2.3 billion in what became Japan's biggest IPO since 2018. Tokyo Metro was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, debuting as the exchange's largest IPO in six years and with a market capitalization of roughly 1 trillion yen. The Government of Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government each sold half of their shares, with the former using the proceeds to repay bonds funding reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
History
The Tokyo Underground Railway Company was founded on August 29, 1920, with the aim of developing Japan's first underground railway at a time when Tokyo was experiencing rapid urban growth. Although construction commenced in 1925, progress was hindered by economic difficulties following the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, which caused widespread destruction and diverted resources away from major infrastructure projects. Nevertheless, the company inaugurated the first 2.2-kilometre segment of what is now the Ginza Line on December 30, 1927, linking Ueno and Asakusa and becoming the first subway line in Asia.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tokyo Metro (company)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.