The Greater Tokyo

The Greater Tokyo

The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Japan consisting of most of the Japanese prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo (at the center). In Japanese, it is referred to as the Tokyo Area (東京圏, Tōkyō-ken?), Capital Area (首都圏, Shuto-ken?), One Metropolis, Three Prefectures (一都三県, Itto Sanken?) or South Kanto (南関東, Minami-Kantō?).
It is the world's most populous metropolitan area (35,197,000 at 2005 estimate[1]), covering an area of approximately 13,500 km² (5,200 mi²).[2] It is the second largest in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 7,800 km² (3,000 mi²).[3] (Only the urban area surrounding New York City at 8,700 km² is larger). It has 35 cities with 200,000 people or more, 21 cities with at least 300,000 people, and 10 with over 500,000 people, and the only city in the world to have a suburb (Yokohama) with more than 3 million people.[citation needed] It is first in the world in terms of railed transit usage, with 22 million passengers using rail as their primary means of travel daily on its 136 predominantly heavy rail lines.[citation needed]