Greater Tokyo Area

Greater Tokyo Area
From top: Skyscrapers in Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Surrounding of Ginza
Coordinates:
Country	Japan
Major Cities	Tokyo Metropolis (Included 23 special wards) Yokohama Kawasaki Sagamihara Saitama Chiba
Area
- Metro	13,754 km2 (5,310 sq mi)
Population (Population Census of Japan 2000)[1]
- Metro	34,607,069
- Metro density	2,516/km2 (6,516/sq mi)
GDP	2005 estimate
Nominal[2]	$1.488 trillion (¥164.02 trillion, The One Metropolis and Three Prefectures)
PPP	$1.479 trillion[3] (1st)

The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Kantō region, Japan consisting of most of the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo (at the center). In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, including the Tokyo Area (東京圏, Tōkyō-ken^?), National Capital Region (首都圏, Shuto-ken^?), One Metropolis, Three Prefectures (一都三県, Itto Sanken^?), and others.

A 2007 UN estimate puts the population at 35,676,000,^[4] making it the world's most populous metropolitan area. It covers an area of approximately 13,500 km² (5,200 mi²),^[5] giving it a population density of 2,642 person/km². It is the second largest in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 7,800 km² (3,000 mi²).^[6] Only the urban area surrounding New York City, at 8,700 km², is larger.

This area has the largest metropolitan economy in the world. One Metropolis, Three Prefectures, one of the definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area, had a total GDP (nominal) of approximately US$1.5 trillion (164 trillion Yen^[2]) in 2005. According to research published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the agglomeration of Tokyo had a total GDP of US$1.479 trillion in 2008 (at purchasing power parity), ranking again as the largest urban agglomeration GDP in the world.^[3]

Definition

There are various different definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area. Each area has a different population.

Various definitions of Tokyo/Kantō

Metropolitan area name	Details	Population	Area (km2)	Population Density (People/km2	Agency	Pop Date	Map
Former area of Tokyo City Limit	23 special wards	8.8 million	621.9	14,150	Japan Statistics Bureau	2010
Tokyo Metropolis	excluding Izu/Ogasawara Islands	12.9 million	1808	7,134.9	Japan Statistics Bureau	2010
Tokyo Metropolitan Employment Area Tōkyō Dai-toshi Koyō-ken (東京大都市雇用圏?)	all municipalities that have at least 10% of their population commuting to 23 special wards Figures for this definition are complex to update without a major re-study.	31.7 million	-	-	Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo	2000
One Metropolis, Three Prefectures (一都三県, Itto Sanken?)	Most Commonly Used Definition Misses many more distant suburbs that lay outside the prefectural borders, especially in Ibaraki and Gunma Incorporates sparsely settled rural districts like Nishitama and even islands like Minamitorishima, 1850 km away from central Tokyo	35,080,000	13,555.65	2,587.85	Japan Statistics Bureau[7]	Oct 2009
Kantō Major Metropolitan Area (関東大都市圏, Kantō Dai-toshi-ken?)	One of the two definitions the Japan Statistics Bureau uses Consists of all municipalities that have at least 1.5% of their population aged 15 and above commuting to a designated city (Yokohama, Kawasaki, Sagamihara, Chiba, and Saitama) or the 23 special wards Before Saitama became a designated city in 2001, the area was called Keihin'yō Major Metropolitan Area (京浜葉大都市圏, Keihin'yō Dai-toshi-ken?) Most locally detailed definition, but hard to update without major re-study Excludes adjacent metropolitan areas of Gunma, Ibaraki, and Utsunomiya (ja:宇都宮都市圏) which are urbanized but have some small towns in between them and Tokyo.	34.6 million			Japan Statistics Bureau	2000
Tokyo Major Metropolitan Area (東京大都市圏, Tōkyō Dai-toshi-ken?)	Set of municipalities that are completely or mostly within 50 and 70 kilometres of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings in Shinjuku Suburbs tend to extend in a finger like outward along major commuter train routes and density builds along express stops, not in a uniform fashion, so these definitions aren't the most accurate definition	30,724,000(50 km) and 34,394,000 (70 km) respectively	-	-	Japan Statistics Bureau[8]	2000
Kantō region	Broad regional definition includes many rural areas	42.053 million	32,423.9	1,296.9	Japan Statistics Bureau[9]	Oct 2009
National Capital Region	According to the National Capital Region Planning Act Includes many any rural areas	42.93 million	36,889.28	1,163.7	Japan Statistics Bureau[10]	Oct 2009

Other

Tight Definition: One Metropolis 3 Prefectures definition, subtracting out sparsely populated western mountainous areas (gun, 郡) or areas that were consolidated from gun into sparse towns or cities and the far flung Izu Islands of Tokyo prefecture. For Chiba, east and southern coastal areas are not included as they are rural. Sometimes rural areas are self governing areas (自治体) within the prefecture. Note the total size is smaller than Los Angeles County.

Loose definition: Major Metropolitan area plus adjacent urban centers of Ibaraki, Gunma, and Tochigi. Tt includes continuous suburban areas not interrupted by rural land plus the core areas as above, using this definition, Greater Tokyo is still smaller in land area than the smallest metropolitan area definition for New York City, the MSA of New York metropolitan area, which has 18.75 million people and 17,405 km². compared to Tokyo's 39.19 million and 16,410 km². This definition is very similar to Kantō Major Metropolitan Area, but updated for 2008. Extending the definition of Tokyo further doesn't significantly change the population figures as land becomes rural and mountainous. The Combined Statistical Area of New York is far looser definition at 30,671 km². and 21.9 million people.

Metropolitan Area definition ambiguities and issues

• The South Kantō region (南関東, Minami Kantō^?) is a potentially ambiguous term. Informally, it may mean the One Metropolis, Three Prefectures, or the area without Saitama Prefecture. Formally, it may mean the South Kantō Block, which is not the Greater Tokyo Area, but a proportional representation block of the national election, comprising Kanagawa, Chiba, and Yamanashi Prefectures.

• In informal occasions, the term National Capital Region (首都圏, Shuto-ken^?) often means Greater Tokyo Area. Officially, the term refers to a much larger area, namely the whole Kantō region and Yamanashi Prefecture.

• It should be noted that Tokyo as a metropolis includes some 394 km² of islands (Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands), as well as some mountainous areas to the far west, which are not part of Greater Tokyo, but have comparatively very small population.

Cities

(populations listed for those over 300,000)

Cities within Tokyo

Tokyo is legally classified as a to (都^?), 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.

Special wards of Tokyo

Eastern Tokyo Metropolis

Central Tokyo, situated in the eastern portion of Tokyo Metropolis, 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 often counted as one city. See: Special wards of Tokyo

Western Tokyo Metropolis

Hachiōji

Western Tokyo, known as the Tama Area (Tama-chiiki 多摩地域) comprises a number of municipalities, including these suburban cities:

Cities outside Tokyo

Chiba

Kawasaki

Saitama

Yokohama

The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside Tokyo Metropolis 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:

source: stat.go.jp census 2005

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:

Gunma Prefecture

• Tatebayashi

Ibaraki Prefecture

Shizuoka Prefecture

• Atami

Tochigi Prefecture

• Oyama

Yamanashi Prefecture

• Ōtsuki
• Uenohara

Border areas

Tighter definitions for Greater Tokyo do not include adjacent metropolitan areas of Numazu-Mishima (approx. 450,000) to the southwest, Maebashi-Takasaki-Ōta-Ashikaga (approx. 1,500,000 people) on the northwest, and Greater Utsunomiya (ja:宇都宮都市圏) approx. 1,000,000) to the north. If they are included, Greater Tokyo's population would be around 39 million.

Tokyo skyline from the northwest. The skyscrapers of Shinjuku lie 23 kilometers away on the other side of farms, parks, and suburbia. The trees in the foreground are the border of Tokyo and Saitama.

Geography

Shinjuku

At the centre of the main urban area (approximately the first 10 km 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 40 km 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 southwest 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.

Economy

Tokyo has the largest city economy in the world and one of three command centers along with New York City and London.

Greater Tokyo Area 2005

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

• 2005 average exchange rate (1 US Dollar = 110.22 Yen)^[11]

Source ^[2]

GDP(nominal) 2005

Greater Tokyo Area and Top 10 Countries.^[12]

Rank	Country	GDP (in billion US$)
1	United States	12,416
2	Japan	4,533
3	Germany	2,794
4	China	2,243
5	United Kingdom	2,201
6	France	2,126
7	Italy	1,762
	(National Capital Region)	1,759
	(The One Metropolis and Three Prefectures)	1,488
8	Spain	1,124
9	Canada	1,113
10	Brazil	882

GDP (purchasing power parity) 2005

Tokyo Tower

The agglomeration of Tokyo is the world's largest economy, with the largest gross metropolitan product at purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world in 2005 according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.^[13]

Rank	Urban agglomerations	Country	GDP(PPP) (in billion US$)
1	Tokyo	Japan	1,191
2	New York City	United States	1,133
3	Los Angeles	United States	639
4	Chicago	United States	460
5	Paris	France	460
6	London	United Kingdom	452
7	Osaka	Japan	341
8	Mexico City	Mexico	315
9	Philadelphia	United States	312
10	Washington, D.C.	United States	299

Transportation

Narita International Airport

Yamanote Line, 3.61 million passengers ride per day

Shuto Expressway on Rainbow Bridge

Air

The Greater Tokyo Area has two major airports, Tokyo International Airport (chiefly domestic) and Narita International Airport (chiefly international). Minor facilities include the Chōfu and Honda Airport. 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 March 2010; it will be called Ibaraki Airport.

Rail

Greater Tokyo has an extensive railway network comprising high-speed rail, commuter rails, subways, monorails, private lines, trams and others. 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.^[14]

JR East and many other carriers crisscross the region with a network of rail lines. (See this map showing the Suica/PASMO accepting area that roughly corresponds with Greater Tokyo). The most important carriers include Keihin Kyūkō Electric Railway (Keikyū), Keisei Electric Railway, Keiō Electric Railway, Odakyū Electric Railway, Seibu Railway, Tōbu Railway, and Tōkyū Corporation. 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.

Other

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

Tokyo and Yokohama are major commercial seaports, and both the Maritime Self-Defense Force and United States Navy maintain naval bases at Yokosuka.

See also

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

References

External links

• Urban Employment Areas in Japan (2000)