Greater Tokyo Area

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The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Japan consisting of the Japanese prefectures 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^?) or South Kanto (南関東, Minami-Kantō^?).

It is the world's most populous metropolitan area (35,327,000 at 2005 estimate), covering an area of approximately 13,500 km² (5,200 mi²). It is the second largest in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 7,000 km² (2,700 mi²). (Only the urban area surrounding New York City at 8,700 km² is larger). It has 27 cities with 200,000 people or more, 17 cities with at least 300,000 people (as compared to just 4 in Greater Los Angeles), and 8 with over 500,000 people, and the only city in the world to have a suburb with more than 3 million people.

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 3 Geography 4 Transportation 4.1 Air 4.2 Rail 4.3 Other 5 See also

[edit] Definition

Like most metropolitans areas, the actual population size depends on definition. While the four-prefecture definition is the most commonly used measure, the official Japan Statistics Bureau definition of the area measures within 50 and 70 kilometres of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, resulting in a lower population estimate (as of 2000) of 30,724,000 and 34,394,000 respectively^[1].

[edit] Cities

(populations listed for those over 300,000)

[edit] Cities within Tokyo

Tokyo is legally classified as a to (都, to^?), a word it 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 and 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. 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 Chofu Fuchu Fussa Hachioji (population over 500,000) Hamura Higashikurume Higashimurayama

Higashiyamato Hino Inagi Kiyose Kodaira Koganei Kokubunji Komae Kunitachi

Machida (population over 400,000) Mitaka Musashimurayama Musashino Nishi-tokyo Ōme Tachikawa Tama

[edit] Cities outside Tokyo

The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside central Tokyo are:

• Chiba (population 940,000)
• Kawasaki (population 1.3 million)
• Saitama (population 1.2 million)
• Yokohama (population 3.6 million)

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

Abiko Ageo Asahi Asaka Atsugi Ayase Chichibu Chigasaki Choshi Ebina Fujimi Fujisawa (population 400,000) Fukaya Funabashi (population over 570,000) Futtsu Gyoda Hadano Hanno Hanyu Hasuda Hatogaya Hidaka Higashimatsuyama Hiratsuka Honjo Ichihara Ichikawa (population over 400,000) Inzai Iruma Isehara

Kamagaya Kamakura Kamifukuoka Kamogawa Kashiwa (population over 300,000) Kasukabe Katsuura Kawagoe (population over 300,000) Kawaguchi (population over 470,000) Kazo Kimitsu Kisarazu Kitamoto Koshigaya (population over 300,000) Kounosu Kuki Kumagaya Matsudo (population over 500,000) Minamiashigara Misato Miura Mobara Nagareyama Narashino Narita Niiza Noda Odawara Okegawa

Sagamihara (population over 600,000) Sakado Sakura Satte Sawara Sayama Shiki Shiroi Sodegaura Soka Tateyama Toda Togane Tokorozawa (population over 300,000) Tomisato Tsurugashima Urayasu Wako Warabi Yachimata Yachiyo Yamato Yashio Yokaichiba Yokosuka (population over 400,000) Yoshikawa Yotsukaido Zama Zushi

source: stat.go.jp census 2005

[edit] Additional cities

In some definitions, the following cities in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka Prefectures are sometimes 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] 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), Chiba (to the east), Omiya (now part of Saitama city, to the north) and Hachioji (to the west). 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 Keiyo Industrial Area from Tokyo westwards 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 gets more rural. To the south is an area known as Shonan 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 andTama 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).

[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 1000 to 1200 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 ridership of about 40 million as well as physical extent with approximately 2,300 kilometers of track. Some 57 percent of all Greater Tokyo residents used rail as their primary means of transport in 2001.^[1]

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 Tokyo Kyuko Electric Railway (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.

[edit] Other

The Shuto Expressway system consists of high-speed highways in the capital region.

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

[edit] See also

• List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population