Tokyo Metro

Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. is the Japanese company that operates the Tokyo Metro, the larger of the two subway systems of Tokyo, and the first subway in Asia, which opened in 1927 as the Tokyo Underground Railway. The company was established on April 1, 2004 through the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, which had run eight of its lines, and it opened its ninth line, the Fukutoshin Line, in 2008. Its network has nine subway lines and 11 routes serving 180 stations over about 195 kilometres of track, and it carries an average of about 6.52 million passengers a day, far more than the Toei Subway. Tokyo Metro is a member of the Japan Private Railway Association and is recognized as the 16th major private railway company of Japan. It was owned by the national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government until a public offering in 2024, when half of the shares were sold to private investors and the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market on October 23, 2024. The two public owners still hold a combined half of the shares, so it remains a special company governed by its own act. Beyond railways it runs station shops, office and hotel property, and advertising.