The Greater Tokyo Area is the third most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi of the neighboring Chūbu region. In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, one of the most common being .

As of 2026, the United Nations estimates the total population at 36,954,512, making it the third-most populous urban area in the world. It is the second-largest single metropolitan area in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at , behind only the New York City metropolitan area at . With around US$1.8 trillion in GDP, Tokyo remains the second-largest metropolitan economy in the world, also behind New York. According to the WIPO Innovation Cluster Rating 2025, the region is one of the three leading science and technology clusters in the world.

Definition

There are various definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area, each of which tries to incorporate different aspects. Some definitions are clearly defined by law or government regulation, some are based coarsely on administrative areas, while others are for research purposes such as commuting patterns or distance from Central Tokyo. Each definition has a different population figure, granularity, methodology, and spatial association.

Various definitions of Tokyo, Greater Tokyo, and Kantō

Inner Tokyo and Tokyo DetailsPopulation, thousands(year)Area (km2)Population density (people/km2)MapArea of former (dissolved) Tokyo City limits 23 special wards, does not correspond to any single authority 8,841 (1970CF),8,135 (2000CF),8,490 (2005CF),8,949 (2010CF),9,256 (2015-12CR) 621.9 13,080 (2000) 14,390 (2010) 14,883 (2015–12) Tokyo Metropolis Prefectural-level jurisdiction (Tokyo-to), figures excluding the Izu and Ogasawara islands 12,038 (2000CF),12,541 (2005CF),13,129 (2010CF),13,479 (2015-12CR) 1808 6,658(2000)6,936 (2005)7,216.5 (2010)7,455 (2015–12)

Metropolitan area DetailsPopulation, thousands(year)Area (km2)Population density (people/km2)Map All municipalities that have at least 10% of their population commuting to the 23 special wards. Figures for this definition are complex to update without a major re-study. 3,348.2 (2010) Coarse administrative definition that contains Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures. Misses many of the more-distant suburbs that lie outside the prefectural borders, especially in Ibaraki and Gunma. Incorporates sparsely settled rural districts like Nishitama. 33,534 (2000CF),35,623 (2010CF),36,092 (2015-12CR) 13,555.65 2,627.9 (2010), 2,662 (2015–12) One of the two definitions the Japan Statistics Bureau uses. Consists of all municipalities that have at least 1.5% of their population aged 15 and above commuting to a designated city (Chiba, Kawasaki, Sagamihara, Saitama, and Yokohama) or the 23 special wards. Before Saitama became a designated city in 2001, the area was called . Excludes adjacent metropolitan areas of Gunma, Ibaraki, and which are urbanized but have some small towns in between them and Tokyo. Most locally detailed definition, but hard to update without major re-study. 36,923 (2010) – – Set of municipalities that are completely or mostly within 50 and 70 kilometres of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings in Shinjuku. Suburbs tend to extend finger-like along major commuter train routes and density builds along express stops, not in a uniform fashion, and so this definition is of value. 32,714 (<50 km, 2010), 36,303 (<70 km, 2010) – –

Administrative areaDetailsPopulation, thousands(year)Area (km2)Population density (people/km2)MapKantō region Entire national region, includes many rural areas 40,550 (2000CF)42,607 (2010CF)42,945 (2015-12CR)42,995 (2020CF) 32,423.9 1,314.1 (2010) National Capital Region According to the National Capital Region Planning Act, very coarse administrative zone, essentially Kantō plus Yamanashi, includes large rural areas. 41,438 (2000CF)43,470 (2010CF)43,785 (2015-12CR)43,830(2020CF) 36,889.28 1,178.4 (2010)

Notes and sources: All figures issued by Japan Statistics Bureau, except for Metro Employment Area, a study by Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. Abbreviations: CF for National Census Final Data (every 5 years by JSB), CR for Civil Registry (compiled by local governments, monthly as per legal requirement), CP for Census Preliminary.

National Capital Region

The of Japan refers to the Greater Tokyo Area as defined by the of 1956, which defines it as "Tokyo and its surrounding area declared by government ordinance." The government ordinance defined it as Tokyo and all six prefectures in the Kantō region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. While this includes all of Greater Tokyo, it also includes sparsely populated mountain areas as well as the far-flung Bonin Islands which are administered under Tokyo.

International comparison Using the "One Metropolis Three Prefectures" definition, Tokyo is , a similar size to that of Los Angeles County, and almost two-thirds smaller than the combined statistical area of New York City, at and 21.9 million people. Other metropolitan areas such as Greater Jakarta are considerably more compact as well as more densely populated than Greater Tokyo.

Metropolitan Area definition ambiguities and issues The is a potentially ambiguous term. Informally, it may mean the One Metropolis, Two Prefectures, or the area without Saitama Prefecture. Formally, it may mean the South Kantō Block, which is not the Greater Tokyo Area, but a proportional representation block of the national election, comprising Kanagawa, Chiba, and Yamanashi Prefectures. In informal occasions, the term often means Greater Tokyo Area. Officially, the term refers to a much larger area, namely the whole Kantō region and Yamanashi Prefecture. Tokyo as a metropolis includes some 394 km of islands (the Izu and Ogasawara islands), as well as some mountainous areas to the far west (331 km), which are officially part of Greater Tokyo, but are wilderness or rustic areas.

Cities (populations listed for those over 300,000)

Cities within Tokyo Tokyo is legally classified as a , which translates as "metropolis", and is treated as one of the forty-seven prefectures of Japan. The metropolis is administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as a whole.

Eastern Tokyo Metropolis Central Tokyo, situated in the eastern portion of Tokyo Metropolis, was once incorporated as Tokyo City, which was dismantled during World War II. Its subdivisions have been reclassified as . The twenty three special wards currently have the legal status of cities, with individual mayors and city councils, and they call themselves "cities" in English. However, when listing Japan's largest cities, Tokyo's twenty three wards are often counted as a single city.

Western Tokyo Metropolis

Western Tokyo, known as the Tama Area (Tama-chiiki 多摩地域) comprises a number of municipalities, including these suburban cities:

Akiruno Akishima Chōfu Fuchū Fussa Hachiōji (pop 540,000) Hamura Higashikurume HigashimurayamaHigashiyamato Hino Inagi Kiyose Kodaira Koganei Kokubunji Komae KunitachiMachida (pop over 410,000) Mitaka Musashimurayama Musashino Nishitōkyō Ōme Tachikawa Tama

Cities outside Tokyo

The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside Tokyo Metropolis are:

Chiba (population 940,000) Kawasaki (population 1.36 million) Sagamihara (population 730,000) Saitama (population 1.19 million) Yokohama (population 3.62 million)

The other cities in Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama Prefectures are: Abiko Ageo Asahi Asaka Atsugi Ayase Chichibu Chigasaki Chōshi Ebina Fujimi Fujimino Fujisawa (pop 416,000) Fukaya Funabashi (pop 580,000) Futtsu Gyōda Hadano Hannō Hanyū Hasuda Hidaka Higashimatsuyama Hiratsuka Honjō Ichihara Ichikawa (pop. 470,000) Inzai Iruma IseharaKamagaya Kamakura Kamogawa Kashiwa (pop 380,000) Kasukabe Katsuura Kawagoe (pop 353,214) Kawaguchi (pop 595,011) Kazo Kimitsu Kisarazu Kitamoto Koshigaya (population 318,000) Kōnosu Kuki Kumagaya Matsudo (pop 480,000) Minamiashigara Misato Miura Mobara Nagareyama Narashino Narita Niiza Noda Ōamishirasato Odawara OkegawaSakado Sakura Satte Sawara Sayama Shiki Shiraoka Shiroi Sodegaura Sōka Tateyama Toda Tōgane Tokorozawa (pop 338,000) Tomisato Tsurugashima Urayasu Wakō Warabi Yachimata Yachiyo Yamato Yashio Yōkaichiba Yokosuka (pop 420,000) Yoshikawa Yotsukaidō Zama Zushi

source: stat.go.jp census 2005

Additional cities In the major metropolitan area (MMA) definition used by the Japanese Statistics Bureau, the following cities in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamanashi, and Shizuoka Prefectures are included:

Gunma Prefecture Tatebayashi Ota

Ibaraki Prefecture Inashiki Ishioka Jōsō KasumigauraKoga Moriya Ryūgasaki TorideTsuchiura Tsukuba Tsukubamirai Ushiku

Shizuoka Prefecture Atami

Tochigi Prefecture Oyama

Yamanashi Prefecture Ōtsuki Uenohara

Border areas Tighter definitions for Greater Tokyo do not include adjacent metropolitan areas of Numazu-Mishima (approx. 450,000) to the southwest, Maebashi-Takasaki-Ōta-Ashikaga (approx. 1,500,000 people) on the northwest, and (approx. 1,000,000) to the north. If they are included, Greater Tokyo's population would be around 39 million. Takasaki-Maebashi is included as part of the Tokyo-Yokohama area in the definition of urban areas by Demographia.

Geography

At the center of the main urban area (approximately the first from Tokyo Station) are the 23 special wards, formerly treated as a single city but now governed as separate municipalities, and containing many major commercial centers such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Ginza. Around the 23 special wards are a multitude of suburban cities which merge seamlessly into each other to form a continuous built up area, circumnavigated by the heavily travelled Route 16 which forms a (broken) loop about from central Tokyo. Situated along the loop are the major cities of Yokohama (to the south of Tokyo), Hachiōji (to the west), Ōmiya (now part of Saitama City, to the north), and Chiba (to the east).

Within the Route 16 loop, the coastline of Tokyo Bay is heavily industrialised, with the Keihin Industrial Area stretching from Tokyo down to Yokohama, and the Keiyō Industrial Zone from Tokyo eastwards to Chiba. Along the periphery of the main urban area are numerous new suburban housing developments such as the Tama New Town. The landscape is relatively flat compared to most of Japan, most of it comprising low hills.

Outside the Route 16 loop the landscape becomes more rural. To the southwest is an area known as Shōnan, which contains various cities and towns along the coast of Sagami Bay, and to the west the area is mountainous.

Many rivers run through the area, the major ones being Arakawa and Tama River.

Demographics

Economy Tokyo metropolitan area is the second largest metropolitan economy in the world only behind New York.

Prefecture GDP(in billion JP¥, 2022) GDP(in billion US$, 2022) Population (2022) GDP per capita(US$, 2022) National Capital Region

Metropolitan Employment Area Year 2010 1995 1980 Employed persons 000s 16,234 16,381 12,760 Production (billion US$) 1,797 1,491 358 Production manufacturing (billion US$) 216 476 159 Private capital stock (billion US$) 3,618 2,631 368 Social overhead capital (billion US$) 1,607 1,417 310 1 US dollar (Japanese yen) 87.780 94.060 226.741 Sources: Conversion rates – Exchange rates – OECD Data

Transportation

Air