Taiheiyō Belt
The Taiheiyō Belt (Japanese: 太平洋ベルト, Hepburn: Taiheiyō Beruto, lit. "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 estimated population as of 2011 was about 80 million.[1]
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.[2] The high population is particularly due to the large plains – the Kantō Plain, Kinai Plain, and Nōbi Plain – which facilitate building in mountainous Japan.[3]
Although the Taiheiyō Belt contains the majority of Japan's population, references to the term 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.[4] 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 70% of the nation's economic output in 2007 (about US$4–5 trillion).[5]
The region is specifically defined by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry as the following prefectures: Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Osaka, Hyōgo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka and Oita.[citation needed]
The Sea of Japan has a much less well-developed string of cities, called Ura-nippon (裏日本) (literally "inner side of Japan"[6]), stretching 1000 km from Akita to Yamaguchi. It is often referenced in relation to the Taiheiyo belt. The Shinkansen line south (and west) of Tokyo runs the course through the belt cities.
Major cities
[edit]
Listed from north to south:
| City[7] | Region | Including | Population (2010) |
GDP (million US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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:[citation needed]
| city | region | including | population | GDP (million US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Kumamoto | Kyushu | Uki, Kōshi | 1,102,398 | 39,763 |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Department, TIME Photo (29 June 2011). "Loneliness Despite Proximity: Pierfrancesco Celada's Study of Isolation". Time Magazine. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
- ^ Satellite images of stable night time lights in Japan
- ^ De Blij, H.J.; Muller, Peter (February 1992). Geography Regions and Concepts (Revised 6th ed.). United States: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 238–239. ISBN 0-471-57275-6.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "日本経済を読み解くカギは産業立地の歴史にあり チャンスを生かすには？ | 経済産業省 METI Journal ONLINE". journal.meti.go.jp (in Japanese). 14 June 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
- ^ Bienvenido-Huertas, David; Pulido-Arcas, Jesús A.; Rubio-Bellido, Carlos; Pérez-Fargallo, Alexis (1 October 2020). "Influence of future climate changes scenarios on the feasibility of the adaptive comfort model in Japan". Sustainable Cities and Society. 61. doi:10.1016/j.scs.2020.102303. hdl:10481/88453.
- ^ "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).
- ^ "Urban Employment Area". Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo. Retrieved August 13, 2016.