Greater Tokyo Area

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The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Japan consisting of most of the Japanese prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo (at the center). In Japanese, it is referred to as the Tokyo Area (東京圏, Tōkyō-ken^?), Capital Area (首都圏, Shuto-ken^?), One Metropolis, Three Prefectures (一都三県, Itto Sanken^?) or South Kanto (南関東, Minami-Kantō^?).

It is the world's most populous metropolitan area (35,197,000 at 2005 estimate^[1]), covering an area of approximately 13,500 km² (5,200 mi²).^[2] It is the second largest in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 7,800 km² (3,000 mi²).^[3] (Only the urban area surrounding New York City at 8,700 km² is larger). It has 35 cities with 200,000 people or more, 21 cities with at least 300,000 people, and 10 with over 500,000 people, and the only city in the world to have a suburb (Yokohama) with more than 3 million people.^{[citation needed]} It is first in the world in terms of railed transit usage, with 22 million passengers using rail as their primary means of travel daily on its 136 predominantly heavy rail lines.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Definition 2 Cities 2.1 Cities within Tokyo 2.1.1 Eastern Tokyo-to 2.1.2 Western Tokyo-to 2.2 Cities outside Tokyo 2.3 Additional cities 2.3.1 Gunma Prefecture 2.3.2 Ibaraki Prefecture 2.3.3 Shizuoka Prefecture 2.3.4 Tochigi Prefecture 2.3.5 Yamanashi Prefecture 2.3.6 Border areas 3 Geography 4 Transportation 4.1 Air 4.2 Rail 4.3 Other 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Definition

Like most metropolitan areas, the actual population size depends on definition. While the four-prefecture definition is the most commonly used measure,^{[citation needed]} the Japan Statistics Bureau uses two definitions: (1) the major metropolitan area, which consists of all municipalities that have at least 1.5% of their population aged 15 and above commuting to a designated city (as of 2000 these were: Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Chiba) or the 23 special wards; and (2) the set of municipalities that are completely or mostly within 50 and 70 kilometres of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, with populations (as of 2000) of 30,724,000 and 34,394,000 respectively.^[4] The Tokyo region continues to increase its population and density despite a demographic decline nationwide.^{[citation needed]}　It should be noted that Tokyo (Prefecture) includes some 394 km2 of islands (Izu Oshima, Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands), as well as some mountainous areas to the far east, which are not part of Greater Tokyo, but have comparatively very small population.

[edit] Cities

(populations listed for those over 300,000)

[edit] Cities within Tokyo

Tokyo is legally classified as a to (都, to^?), a word which translates as "metropolis," and is treated as one of the forty-seven prefectures of Japan. It is not administered as a single city.

[edit] Eastern Tokyo-to

Central Tokyo, situated in the eastern portion of Tokyo-to, was once incorporated as Tokyo City, which was dismantled during World War II. Its subdivisions have been reclassified as special wards (特別区, tokubetsu-ku^?). The twenty three special wards currently have the legal status of cities, with individual mayors and city councils, and call themselves "cities" in English. However, when listing Japan's largest cities, Tokyo's twenty three wards are counted as one city. See: Special wards of Tokyo

[edit] Western Tokyo-to

Western Tokyo, known as the Tama district (Tama-chiho 多摩地方) comprises a number of municipalities, including these suburban cities:

Akiruno Akishima Chōfu Fuchu Fussa Hachiōji (pop 540,000) Hamura Higashikurume Higashimurayama

Higashiyamato Hino Inagi Kiyose Kodaira Koganei Kokubunji Komae Kunitachi

Machida (pop over 410,000) Mitaka Musashimurayama Musashino Nishi-tokyo Ōme Tachikawa Tama

[edit] Cities outside Tokyo

The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside Tokyo-to are:

• Chiba (population 940,000)
• Kawasaki (population 1.36 million)
• Saitama (population 1.19 million)
• Yokohama (population 3.62 million)

The other cities in Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama Prefectures are:

Abiko Ageo Asahi Asaka Atsugi Ayase Chichibu Chigasaki Choshi Ebina Fujimi Fujimino Fujisawa (pop 400,000) Fukaya Funabashi (pop 580,000) Futtsu Gyoda Hadano Hanno Hanyu Hasuda Hatogaya Hidaka Higashimatsuyama Hiratsuka Honjo Ichihara Ichikawa (pop. 470,000) Inzai Iruma Isehara Kamagaya Kamakura Kamogawa Kashiwa (pop 380,000) Kasukabe Katsuura Kawagoe (pop 330,000) Kawaguchi (pop 500,000) Kazo Kimitsu Kisarazu Kitamoto Koshigaya (population 318,000) Kounosu Kuki Kumagaya Matsudo (pop 480,000) Minamiashigara Misato Miura Mobara Nagareyama Narashino Narita Niiza Noda Odawara Okegawa

Sagamihara (pop 700,000) Sakado Sakura Satte Sawara Sayama Shiki Shiroi Sodegaura Soka Tateyama Toda Togane Tokorozawa (pop 338,000) Tomisato Tsurugashima Urayasu Wako Warabi Yachimata Yachiyo Yamato Yashio Yokaichiba Yokosuka (pop 420,000) Yoshikawa Yotsukaido Zama Zushi

source: stat.go.jp census 2005

[edit] Additional cities

In the major metropolitan area (MMA) definition used by the Japanese Statistics Bureau, the following cities in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka Prefectures are included:

[edit] Gunma Prefecture

• Tatebayashi

[edit] Ibaraki Prefecture

• Inashiki
• Ishioka
• Joso
• Kasumigaura
• Koga
• Moriya
• Ryugasaki
• Toride
• Tsuchiura
• Tsukuba
• Ushiku

[edit] Shizuoka Prefecture

• Atami

[edit] Tochigi Prefecture

• Oyama

[edit] Yamanashi Prefecture

• Otsuki
• Uenohara

[edit] Border areas

Greater Tokyo is bordered by metropolitan areas of Numazu-Atami (approx. 500,000) to the southwest, Maebashi-Takasaki-Ōta-Ashikaga, Tochigi (approx. 1,500,000 people) on the northwest, and Greater Utsunomiya (approx. 800,000) to the north. If these areas are included, Greater Tokyo's population would be around 38-39 million.

[edit] Geography

At the centre of the main urban area (approximately the first 10km from Tokyo station) are the 23 special wards, formerly treated as a single city but now governed as separate municipalities, and containing many major commercial centres such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Ginza. Around the 23 special wards are a multitude of suburban cities which merge seamlessly into each other to form a continuous built up area, circumnavigated by the heavily-travelled Route 16 which forms a (broken) loop about 40km from central Tokyo. Situated along the loop are the major cities of Yokohama (to the south of Tokyo), Hachiōji (to the west), Ōmiya (now part of Saitama city, to the north), and Chiba (to the east). Within the Route 16 loop, the coastline of Tokyo Bay is heavily industrialised, with the Keihin Industrial Area stretching from Tokyo down to Yokohama, and the Keiyō Industrial Area from Tokyo eastwards to Chiba. Along the periphery of the main urban area are numerous new suburban housing developments such as the Tama New Town. The landscape is relatively flat compared to most of Japan, most of it comprising low hills.

Outside the Route 16 loop the landscape becomes more rural. To the south is an area known as Shōnan comprising various cities and towns along the coast of Sagami Bay, with their long beaches comprising black volcanic sand, and to the west the area is mountainous.

Many rivers run through the area, the major ones being Arakawa and Tama River.

[edit] Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Greater Tokyo

[edit] Air

The Greater Tokyo Area has two major airports, Tokyo International Airport (chiefly domestic) and Narita International Airport (chiefly international). Minor facilities include Chofu and Honda Airports. Tokyo Heliport serves helicopter traffic, including police, fire, and news. Various military facilities handle air traffic: Naval Air Facility Atsugi (United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force), Hyakuri Airfield (Japan Air Self-Defense Force), Yokota Air Base (United States Air Force), and Camp Zama (United States Army). Hyakuri is being developed for civil aviation with plans for service to begin in 2009; it will be called Ibaraki Airport.

[edit] Rail

Greater Tokyo has an extensive railway network comprising monorails, commuter rails, subways, private lines, trams, and so forth. There are around 136 individual rail lines in the Greater Tokyo Area, and between 1,000 to 1,200 railway stations depending on one's definition of the area, most designed for heavy use, usually long enough to accommodate 10-car trains. Major stations are designed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of passengers at any given time, with miles of connecting tunnels linking vast department stores and corporate offices. Tokyo Station has underground connections that stretch well over 4 kilometers, and Shinjuku Station has well over 200 exits. Greater Tokyo's Railway Network is easily considered the world's largest in terms of both daily passenger throughput with a daily trips of over 40 million (20 million different passengers) as well as physical extent with approximately 2,578 kilometers of track. Some 57 percent of all Greater Tokyo residents used rail as their primary means of transport in 2001.^[5]

JR East and many other carriers crisscross the region with a network of rail lines. The most important carriers include Keihin Kyuko Electric Railway (Keikyu), Keisei Electric Railway, Keio Electric Railway, Odakyu Electric Railway, Seibu Railway, Tobu Railway, and Tokyu Corporation (Tokyu). In addition to Tokyo's two subway systems (Tokyo Metro and Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei and Toden lines), Yokohama operates three lines. The Tokyo Monorail provides service to Haneda Airport and other destinations.

Tokyo Railway and Subway Map

Greater Tokyo Railway and Subway Map

[edit] Other

The Shuto Expressway system connects other national expressways in the capital region.

Tokyo and Yokohama are the only two of the major ports in the Greater Tokyo Area.

[edit] References

1. ^ United Nations World Urbanization Prospects (2005 edition)
2. ^ Japan Statistics Bureau - Keihinyo Major Metropolitan Area
3. ^ demographia.com - World urban areas
4. ^ Japan Statistics Bureau - Population figures for range of distance
5. ^ Urban Transport Fact Book - Tokyo-Yokohama suburban rail summary

[edit] See also

• List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population
• National Capital Region (Japan) briefly shows the two definitions of the "Capital Area" (Shuto-ken.)

[edit] External links

• Urban Employment Areas in Japan (2000)es:Área del Gran Tokio

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