As the seat of Japanese government and the home of the Imperial Palace and family, Tokyo is the de facto capital of Japan. The city began as a settlement named Edo, which by the mid-1600s was the center of a shogun powerbase that had a nationwide military presence. In 1869 Emperor Meiji renamed the city and claimed it as the seat of the Japanese Empire, which was characterized by a period of expansionism and militarism that lasted up until the Japanese defeat in World War II. Twice left in ruins, after the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and extensive firebombing in WWII, the city rebuilt itself, peaking in the 1980s during its real estate and technology boom. Even after that bubble burst, Tokyo has continued to build upon itself, demolishing the old to make way for the new in a city with intense density.