List of metropolitan areas in Japan

This is a list of metropolitan areas (都市圏, toshiken) in Japan by population as defined by the Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) and the Center for Spatial Information Service of the University of Tokyo.

The region containing most of the people in Japan between Tokyo and Fukuoka is often called the Taiheiyō Belt.

The Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) defines a metropolitan area as one or more central cities and its associated outlying municipalities.

The Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo has defined 100 metropolitan employment areas (MEAs) and 122 micropolitan employment areas (McEAs) for Japan.

[5] The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan.