Tokio is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in southeastern Benson County

Benson County, North Dakota

-Major highways:* U.S. Highway 2* U.S. Highway 281* North Dakota Highway 19* North Dakota Highway 20* North Dakota Highway 57-National protected areas:*Pleasant Lake National Wildlife Refuge*Silver Lake National Wildlife Refuge...

, North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation

Spirit Lake Tribe

The Spirit Lake Tribe is a Sioux tribe. Its reservation is located in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake...

. It lies southeast of the city of Minnewaukan

Minnewaukan, North Dakota

As of the census of 2000, there were 318 people, 148 households, and 87 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,157.0 people per square mile . There were 199 housing units at an average density of 724.1 per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 86.16% White, 9.75%...

, the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Benson County. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, with the ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 of 58379.

History

Tokio was established in 1906 as a station along the Great Northern Railway. The post office was opened in 1907, and remains in operation today. A railroad official chose the name Tokio, based on the local Dakota

Dakota language

Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...

 Indian

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 word to-ki, or "gracious gift." However, some believe it is named after the city of Tokyo in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.