Kantō region

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (October 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,618 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:関東地方]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|ja|関東地方}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Kanto region 関東地方
Region
The Kanto region in comparison to the rest of Japan
Closeup map of the areas within the Kanto region
Area
• Total	32,423.90 km2 (12,518.94 sq mi)
Population  (October 1, 2010)
• Total	42,607,376
• Density	1,300/km2 (3,400/sq mi)
GDP  (nominal; 2020)[1][2]
• Total	$2.1 trillion
• Per capita	$50,000
Time zone	UTC+9 (JST)

Geofeatures map of Kanto

The Kanto region (関東地方, Kantō-chihō) is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan.^[3] In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 45 percent of the land area is the Kanto Plain. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that form the land borders. According to the official census on October 1, 2010, by the Japan Statistics Bureau, the population was 42,607,376,^[4] amounting to approximately one third of the total population of Japan.

Other definitions[]

The Kantō regional governors' association (関東地方知事会, Kantō chihō chijikai) assembles the prefectural governors of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.^[5][6]

In the police organization of Japan, the National Police Agency's supervisory office for Kantō (関東管区警察局, Kantō kanku keisatsu-kyoku) is responsible for the Prefectural police departments of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.^[7] Tokyo is not part of Kantō or any NPA region, its police has a dedicated liaison office with the national agency of its own.

The Kantō Regional Development Bureau (関東地方整備局, Kantō chihō seibi-kyoku) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in the national government is responsible for eight prefectures generally (Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi) and parts of the waterways in two others (Nagano and Shizuoka).^[8] The Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (関東経済産業局, Kantō keizai-sangyō-kyoku) is responsible for eleven prefectures: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.^[9]

History[]

The heartland of feudal power during the Kamakura period and again in the Edo period, Kanto became the center of modern development. Within the Greater Tokyo Area and especially the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, Kanto houses not only Japan's seat of government but also the nation's largest group of universities and cultural institutions, the greatest population and a large industrial zone. Although most of the Kanto plain is used for residential, commercial or industrial construction, it is still farmed. Rice is the principal crop, although the zone around Tokyo and Yokohama has been landscaped to grow garden produce for the metropolitan market.^{[citation needed]}

A watershed moment of Japan's modern history took place in the late Taishō period: the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The quake, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and ravaged the Tokyo and Yokohama areas, occurred at a time when Japan was still reeling from the economic recession in reaction to the high-flying years during World War I.^{[citation needed]}

Operation Coronet, part of Operation Downfall, the proposed Allied invasion of Japan during World War II, was scheduled to land at the Kantō plain. Most of the United States military bases on the island of Honshu are situated on the Kantō plain. These include Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Yokota Air Base, Yokosuka Naval Base, and Camp Zama.^{[citation needed]}

The name Kanto literally means "East of the Barrier". The name Kanto is nowadays generally considered to mean the region east (東) of the Hakone checkpoint (関所). An antonym of Kanto, "West of the Barrier" means Kansai region, which lies western Honshu and was the center of feudal Japan.^{[citation needed]}

After the Great Kanto earthquake many people in Kanto started creating art with different varieties of colors. They made art of earthquake and small towns to symbolize the small towns destroyed in the quake.^{[citation needed]}

Mount Nikkō-Shirane, in the Kantō region

Subdivisions[]

North and South[]

The most often used subdivision of the region is dividing it to "North Kantō" (北関東, Kita-Kantō), consisting of Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma Prefectures, and "South Kantō" (南関東, Minami-Kantō), consisting of Saitama (sometimes classified North),^{[citation needed][by whom?]} Chiba, the Tokyo Metropolis (sometimes singulated),^{[citation needed]} and Kanagawa Prefectures.^{[citation needed]} South Kantō is often regarded as synonymous with the Greater Tokyo Area. As part of Japan's attempts to predict earthquakes, an area roughly corresponding to South Kantō has been designated an 'Area of Intensified Observation' by the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.^[10]

The Japanese House of Representatives' divides it into the North Kantō (北関東, Kita-Kantō) electorate which consists of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Saitama Prefectures, Tokyo electorate, and the South Kantō (南関東, Minami-Kantō) electorate which consists of Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures. (Note that Yamanashi is out of Kantō region in the orthodox definition.)

Keirin's South Kantō (南関東, Minami-Kantō) consists of Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures.

East and West[]

This division is not often but sometimes used.

• East Kantō (東関東, Higashi-Kantō): Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba Prefectures.
• West Kantō (西関東, Nishi-Kantō): Gunma, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa (and sometimes Yamanashi) Prefectures.

Inland and Coastal[]

This division is sometimes used in economics and geography. The border can be modified if the topography is taken for prefectural boundaries.

• Inland Kantō (関東内陸部, Kantō nairiku-bu): Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama (and sometimes Yamanashi) Prefectures.
• Coastal Kantō (関東沿岸部, Kantō engan-bu): Ibaraki, Chiba, Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefectures.

Greater Kantō[]

The Japanese national government defines the National Capital Region (首都圏, Shuto-ken) as Kantō region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. Japan's national public broadcaster NHK uses Kantō-kō-shin-etsu (関東甲信越) involving Yamanashi, Nagano and Niigata Prefectures for regional programming and administration.

Cities[]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Kantō region is the most highly developed, urbanized, and industrialized part of Japan. Tokyo and Yokohama form a single industrial complex with a concentration of light and heavy industry along Tokyo Bay. Other major cities in the area include Kawasaki (in Kanagawa Prefecture); Saitama (in Saitama Prefecture); and Chiba (in Chiba Prefecture). Smaller cities, farther away from the coast, house substantial light and automotive industries. The average population density reached 1,192 persons per square kilometre in 1991.

Economy[]

The Kantō region largely corresponds to the Tokyo metropolitan area with the exception that it does not contain Yamanashi prefecture.

The Tokyo metropolitan area has the largest city economy in the world and is one of the major global center of trade and commerce along with New York City, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Paris, Seoul and London.

Greater Tokyo Area 2005[]

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

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

Source^[12]

GDP (purchasing power parity)[]

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 according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.^[13]

Kanto Region Metropolitan Employment Area[]

Sources:,^[14] Conversion rates - Exchange rates - OECD Data

Population[]

The population of Kanto region is very similar to that of Greater Tokyo Area^{[15][better source needed]} except that it does not contain Yamanashi Prefecture and contains the rural populations throughout the region.

Per Japanese census data,^[16] and^[17] Kanto region's population has continuously grown but the population growth rate has slowed since early 1992.

The Kanto region at 2018 has a population at around 43.3 million people.^[18]

See also[]

• Geography of Japan
• Kantō dialect
• Kantō Fureai Trail, aka Capital Region Nature Trail, a collection of hiking trails circumnavigating the entire Kantō Region

Notes[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

External links[]

• Media related to Kantō region at Wikimedia Commons