Taiheiyō Belt

The Taiheiyō Belt (太平洋ベルト, Taiheiyō beruto, literally "Pacific Belt"), also known as the Tōkaidō corridor, is the megalopolis in Japan extending from Ibaraki Prefecture in the northeast to Fukuoka Prefecture in the southwest, running for almost 1,200 km (750 mi). Its population is about 74.7 million.

A map of the Taiheiyō Belt showing the Tōkaidō and Sanyō shinkansen routes.

The urbanization zone runs mainly along the Pacific coast (hence the name) of Japan from Kantō region to Osaka, and the Inland Sea (on both sides) to Fukuoka, and is concentrated along the Tōkaidō-Sanyō rail corridor. A view of Japan at night clearly shows a rather dense and continuous strip of light (demarcating urban zones) that delineates the region.[1] The high population is particularly due to the large plains – the Kantō Plain, Kinai Plain, and Nōbi Plain – which facilitate building in mountainous Japan.

Although it contains the majority of Japan's population, references to it in Japanese are mainly economic or regional in nature. The term was first used in 1960 in an Economic Commission Subcommittee Report formed to double the national income. At that time, it was identified as the core of the nation's industrial complex. Other than the Miyagi area, nearly all manufacturing industry in the nation lies in this zone, accounting for 81% of the nation's economic output in 2007 (about US$4–5 trillion).

The region is specifically defined by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry as the following prefectures: Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Osaka, Hyōgo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka and Oita.

The Sea of Japan has a much less well-developed string of cities, called Ura-nippon (裏日本) (literally "inner side of Japan"[2]), stretching 1000 km from Akita to Yamaguchi. It is often referenced in relation to the Taiheiyo belt. The Shinkansen line south (and west) of Tokyo runs the course through the belt cities.

Major cities
A nighttime satellite photo comparison (to scale) of the Northeast Megalopolis in the United States (top) and the Taiheiyō Belt (bottom).
Major cities of Taiheiyō Belt

Listed from north to south:

city[3] region including population
(2010)		 GDP
(million US$)
Greater Mito Kantō Hitachinaka 678,969 30,258
Greater Tsukuba Kantō Tsuchiura 847,292 37,132
Greater Tokyo Kantō Saitama, Chiba, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Sagamihara 34,834,167 1,797,899
Greater Numazu Chūbu Mishima 509,249 22,888
Greater Shizuoka Chūbu Yaizu, Fujieda 1,001,597 45,840
Greater Hamamatsu Chūbu Iwata, Fukuroi 1,133,879 54,258
Greater Toyohashi Chūbu Toyokawa 676,333 31,001
Greater Nagoya Chūbu Ichinomiya, Kasugai, Kuwana, Kani 5,490,453 256,290
Greater Yokkaichi Kansai Suzuka 621,689 29,072
Greater Kyoto Kansai Uji, Otsu, Kusatsu 2,679,094 115,258
Greater Osaka Kansai Sakai, Higashiosaka, Nishinomiya, Nara 12,273,041 516,775
Greater Kobe Kansai Akashi, Kakogawa, Takasago 2,431,076 96,004
Greater Himeji Kansai Tatsuno 784,365 33,587
Greater Wakayama Kansai Iwade 584,852 24,592
Greater Tokushima Shikoku Anan 680,467 28,384
Greater Okayama Chūgoku Kurashiki, Sōja 1,532,146 63,101
Greater Takamatsu Shikoku Marugame 830,040 34,722
Greater Fukuyama Chūgoku Onomichi 764,838 31,518
Greater Hiroshima Chūgoku Hatsukaichi, Fuchu-cho 1,141,848 61,345
Greater Matsuyama Shikoku Iyo 642,841 24,509
Greater Kitakyushu Kyushu Yukuhashi, Nogata 1,370,169 55,693
Greater Fukuoka Kyushu Kasuga, Chikushino, Itoshima 2,495,552 101,644
Greater Ōita Kyushu Beppu 743,323 28,881

May also include:

city region including population GDP
(million US$)
Greater Kumamoto Kyushu Uki, Kōshi 1,102,398 39,763

See also
  • List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population

References
  1. Satellite images of stable night time lights in Japan
  2. "Omote-ura – Public and Private Faces". Nakasendoway.com. Retrieved 23 May 2020. Omote Nihon and Ura Nihon are terms sometimes used to refer to the advanced Pacific Ocean side of Japan (the public side which outsiders see) and the Japan Sea side which is less populated and underdeveloped (the private side of Japan which supposedly no one wants exposed to outside scrutiny).
  3. "Urban Employment Area". Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo. Retrieved August 13, 2016.

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