List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population

Kantō MMA
Keihanshin Major Metropolitan Area

This table contains lists of Japanese metropolitan areas (都市圏), as defined by the Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ). The lists include the prefectures containing the region, the population of the region, and the central cities of each region. The region containing most of the people in Japan between Tokyo and Fukuoka is often called the Taiheiyo Belt.

Usage note: Metropolitan area populations are often controversial and the methods used to calculate them vary from country to country and source to source, so great care should be taken when comparing the figures in this table with figures for any other country. Meaningful comparisons of metropolitan area population figures can only be made if the methods used to determine each figure are consistent.

Definition

The Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) defines a metropolitan area as one or more central cities and its associated outlying municipalities. To qualify as an outlying municipality, the municipality must have at least 1.5% of its resident population aged 15 and above commuting to school or work into one of the central cities. To qualify as a central city, a city must either be a designated city of any population or a non-designated city with a city proper population of at least 500,000. Metropolitan areas of designated cities are defined as "major metropolitan areas" (大都市圏) while those of non-designated cities are simply "metropolitan areas" (都市圏). If multiple central cities are close enough such that their outlying cities overlap, they are combined together and a single metropolitan area is defined rather than independently.

The metropolitan areas written in bold are the 11 major metropolitan areas of Japan.

RankAreaPrefectureCentral CityArea Population
01Kantō MMATokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, Yamanashi Prefecture23 special wards area, Yokohama, Sagamihara, Kawasaki, Chiba, Saitama36,923,193
02Keihanshin MMAOsaka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Hyōgo Prefecture, Nara Prefecture, Shiga Prefecture, Wakayama PrefectureOsaka, Sakai, Kobe, Kyoto19,341,976
03Chūkyō MMAAichi Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, Mie PrefectureNagoya9,107,414
04Kitakyūshū-Fukuoka MMAFukuoka PrefectureFukuoka, Kitakyushu5,515,427
05Shizuoka-Hamamatsu MMAShizuoka PrefectureShizuoka, Hamamatsu2,741,028
06Sapporo MMAIshikari Subprefecture in HokkaidōSapporo2,584,880
07Sendai MMAMiyagi PrefectureSendai2,169,757
08Hiroshima MMAHiroshima PrefectureHiroshima2,099,514
09Utsunomiya MATochigi PrefectureUtsunomiya1,686,898
10Okayama MMAOkayama PrefectureOkayama1,647,892
11Kumamoto MMAKumamoto PrefectureKumamoto1,476,435
12Niigata MMANiigata PrefectureNiigata1,421,694
13Kagoshima MAKagoshima PrefectureKagoshima1,152,748
14Matsuyama MAEhime PrefectureMatsuyama717,687

Changes from 2005 census The following changes to metropolitan area definitions were made in the 2010 Census report.[2]

2005 census

The metropolitan areas written in bold are the 8 major metropolitan areas of Japan.

RankAreaPrefectureCentral CityArea Population
01Kantō MMATokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, Yamanashi Prefecture23 special wards area, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Chiba, Saitama35,682,460
02Keihanshin MMAOsaka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Hyōgo Prefecture, Nara Prefecture, Shiga Prefecture, Wakayama PrefectureOsaka, Kobe, Kyoto18,768,395
03Chūkyō MMAAichi Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, Mie PrefectureNagoya8,923,445
04Kitakyūshū-Fukuoka MMAFukuoka PrefectureFukuoka, Kitakyushu5,590,378
05Sapporo MMAIshikari Subprefecture in HokkaidōSapporo2,606,214
06Sendai MMAMiyagi PrefectureSendai2,289,656
07Hiroshima MMAHiroshima PrefectureHiroshima2,064,536
08Okayama MMAOkayama PrefectureOkayama1,646,757
09Kumamoto MAKumamoto PrefectureKumamoto1,462,409
10Niigata MMANiigata PrefectureNiigata1,442,958
11Shizuoka MMAShizuoka PrefectureShizuoka1,427,107
12Hamamatsu MAShizuoka PrefectureHamamatsu1,304,548
13Kagoshima MAKagoshima PrefectureKagoshima1,132,106
14Matsuyama MAEhime PrefectureMatsuyama724,048

Urban Employment Area

Main article: Urban Employment Area

Urban Employment Area is another definition of metropolitan areas, defined by the Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. The Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2010 Census Final Data
  2. ↑ Statistics Bureau of Japan
  3. ↑ Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2005 Census Final Data
  4. ↑ 経済産業省の地域政策におけるエリア概念について [Area concept in the regional policy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry] (pdf) (Report) (in Japanese). 2014-10-07. p. 3.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, December 02, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.