Largest Japanese metropolitan areas

This table contains lists of Japanese metropolitan areas (都市圏), as defined by the Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ). The lists include the prefectures containing the region, the population of the region, and the central cities of each region. The region containing most of the people in Japan between Tokyo and Fukuoka is often called the Taiheiyo Belt.

The Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) defines a metropolitan area as one or more central cities and its associated outlying municipalities. To qualify as an outlying municipality, the municipality must have at least 1.5% of its resident population aged 15 and above commuting to school or work into one of the central cities. To qualify as a central city, a city must either be a designated city of any population or a non-designated city with a city proper population of at least 500,000. Metropolitan areas of designated cities are defined as "major metropolitan areas" (大都市圏) while those of non-designated cities are simply "metropolitan areas" (都市圏). If multiple central cities are close enough such that their outlying cities overlap, they are combined together and a single metropolitan area is defined rather than independently.

The metropolitan areas written in bold are the 11 major metropolitan areas of Japan.

Changes from 2005 census The following changes to metropolitan area definitions were made in the 2010 Census report.

The metropolitan areas written in bold are the 8 major metropolitan areas of Japan.

Urban Employment Area is another definition of metropolitan areas, defined by the Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. The Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan.

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