Minato (港区, Minato-ku) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Minato ward exhibits the contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division. The Shinbashi neighborhood in the ward's northeastern corner is attached to the core of Shitamachi, the original commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the Azabu and Akasaka areas are typically representative Yamanote districts. As of 1 July 2015[update], it had an official population of 243,094, and a population density of 10,850 persons per km2. The total area is 20.37 km2. Minato hosts many embassies. It is also home to various domestic companies, including Honda, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MinebeaMitsumi,[citation needed] Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, NEC, Nikon, Sony, Fujitsu, Yokohama Rubber Company, as well as the Japanese headquarters of a number of multi-national firms, including Apple and Goldman Sachs. From Wikipedia
