Kanto
Kanto (関東地方 Kantoo-chihoo) is a region of Japan located on Honshu island. It consists of seven administrative areas (prefectures), and is home to Japan's capital, Tokyo, as well as the cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama and Chiba, among others. Within Kanto lies the Greater Tokyo Area, the world's most populated region.[1][2]
Kanto is divided into seven prefectures: Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Miyagi, Tochigi and Tokyo (a metropolitan region with prefectural status).
The total population of the Kanto region was 41,642,000 in 2006, of which 34,634,000 were in the Greater Tokyo Area.[3][4] Kanto's prefectures together account for about a third of Japan's population, and the area forms part of an urban corridor running north-eastwards from Kansai through the Chubu region, which makes Kanto part of one of the most densely-populated areas of the world, home to over half the country's population.[5]
Footnotes
- ↑ United Nations: 'World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision Population Database'. Select 'Japan' in the right hand column and click 'Display'.
- ↑ The 'Greater Tokyo Area' has several definitions and therefore names in Japanese. A common designation is 'One Metropolis, Three Prefectures' (一都三県 Itto Sanken) - i.e. Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama.
- ↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook: 'Population by Prefecture 1920-2006'. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. .xls document.
- ↑ The Greater Tokyo Area being defined as above.
- ↑ Japan Times: 'Population shrinks again despite increase in births'. 3rd August 2007.