During the Edo period, Tokugawa Ieyasu built Nagoya Castle in the land of Owari (now Nagoya), which was a strategic location for transportation, over a two-year period starting in 1610. (The present Nagoya Castle was built new in 1959.) Nagoya subsequently flourished as a castle town and is still the governmental, economic, and industrial center of the Chubu region, with many government offices, companies, and factories concentrated there. It is the fourth largest city in Japan.
The busiest part of Nagoya City is around Sakae Station on the subway line. The Hisaya Ôdôri in Sakae is a great avenue 100 m wide and 2 km long. At the center of this great avenue is a park with greenery, and toward the middle stands the 180-m tall tower of Nagoya Television, erected in 1954.