Taiheiyō Belt


The Taiheiyō 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. Its estimated population as of 2011 was about 80 million.
The urbanization zone runs mainly along the Pacific coast of Japan from Kantō region to Osaka, and the Inland Sea 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 that delineates the region.
The high population is particularly due to the large plains – the Kantō Plain, Kinai Plain, and Nōbi Plain – which facilitate building in otherwise mountainous Japan.
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. 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. The Shinkansen line south of Tokyo runs the course through the belt cities.
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.
The Sea of Japan has a much less well-developed string of cities, called Ura-nippon, stretching 1000 km from Akita to Yamaguchi.

Major cities

Listed from north to south:
CityRegionIncludingPopulation
GDP
Greater MitoKantōHitachinaka678,96930,258
Greater TsukubaKantōTsuchiura847,29237,132
Greater TokyoKantōSaitama, Chiba, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Sagamihara34,834,1671,797,899
Greater NumazuChūbuMishima509,24922,888
Greater ShizuokaChūbuYaizu, Fujieda1,001,59745,840
Greater HamamatsuChūbuIwata, Fukuroi1,133,87954,258
Greater ToyohashiChūbuToyokawa676,33331,001
Greater NagoyaChūbuIchinomiya, Kasugai, Kuwana, Kani5,490,453256,290
Greater YokkaichiKansaiSuzuka621,68929,072
Greater KyotoKansaiUji, Otsu, Kusatsu2,679,094115,258
Greater OsakaKansaiSakai, Higashiosaka, Nishinomiya, Nara12,273,041516,775
Greater KobeKansaiAkashi, Kakogawa, Takasago2,431,07696,004
Greater HimejiKansaiTatsuno784,36533,587
Greater WakayamaKansaiIwade584,85224,592
Greater TokushimaShikokuAnan680,46728,384
Greater OkayamaChūgokuKurashiki, Sōja1,532,14663,101
Greater TakamatsuShikokuMarugame830,04034,722
Greater FukuyamaChūgokuOnomichi764,83831,518
Greater HiroshimaChūgokuHatsukaichi, Fuchu-cho1,141,84861,345
Greater MatsuyamaShikokuIyo642,84124,509
Greater KitakyushuKyushuYukuhashi, Nogata1,370,16955,693
Greater FukuokaKyushuKasuga, Chikushino, Itoshima2,495,552101,644
Greater ŌitaKyushuBeppu743,32328,881

May also include:
cityregionincludingpopulationGDP
Greater KumamotoKyushuUki, Kōshi1,102,39839,763