Chūkyō (中京圏, Chūkyō-ken), or the Chūkyō region (中京地方, Chūkyō-chihō), is a major metropolitan areainJapan that is centered on the city of Nagoya (the "Chūkyō", i.e., the "capital in the middle") in Aichi Prefecture. The area makes up the most urbanized part of the Tōkai region. The population of 10,110,000 over an area of 7,072 square kilometers.[1]
Nevertheless, like most of Japan's major metro areas, the core of it lies on a fertile alluvial plain, in this case, the Nōbi Plain.
It is among the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the world, and is the third most populous metropolitan area in Japan (after Greater Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto), containing roughly 7% of Japan's population. Historically, this region has taken a back seat to the other two power centers, both politically and economically; however, the agglomeration of Nagoya is the world's 22nd-largest metro area economy, in terms of gross metropolitan product at purchasing power parity in 2014, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.[4] The GDP of Greater Nagoya, Nagoya Metropolitan Employment Area, was US$256.3 billion in 2010.[2][5]
The metropolitan area stretches beyond the central city of Nagoya to other municipalities in Aichi Prefecture, as well as neighboring Gifu and Mieprefectures.
There are at least 38 passenger train lines in the Greater Nagoya area. JR runs six, Nagoya Subway seven, Meitetsu 18, Kintetsu four, and five other operators one each.
Per Japanese census data,[7][8][9] and[10][circular reference] , Chūkyō metropolitan area, also known as greater Nagoya, has had continuous population growth.
The area defined by the Chukyo Area Person-Trip Survey, a study of commuter movement, is slightly different from the census definition. It includes southern Aichi and areas immediately north of Gifu City. It adds two cities in Aichi Prefecture (Tahara and Toyohashi) and two cities in Gifu Prefecture (Mino and Seki). Additionally, it excludes two cities in Gifu Prefecture (Ena and Nakatsugawa).
Mie Prefecture
Tōkai
Handa
Kariya
Anjō
