16^th Asia Pacific Pathology Congress September 17-18, 2018 Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo is often referred to as a city, but is officially known and governed as a "metropolitan prefecture", which differs from and combines elements of a city and a prefecture, a characteristic unique to Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo each governed as an individual city, which cover the area that was the City of Tokyo before it merged and became the metropolitan prefecture in 1943. The metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 9 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy. The city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world.

Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered an alpha+ world city – as listed by the GaWC's 2008  inventor and in 2014, Tokyo was ranked first in the "Best overall experience" category of Trip Advisor’s World City Survey (the city also ranked first in the following categories: helpfulness of locals" "nightlife" "shopping" "local public transportation" and "cleanliness of streets").