Tenured Professor at
The Open University of Japan

Below are the urban areas defined in such a manner. The population meshed data, retrieved from the census in 2010, is referred to as “mdbUA2010”. So far our work of defining urban areas has covered the population concentration areas of the Pacific coastal belts. In the near future the rest of Japan will be covered as well.

Tokyo

As demonstrated so far, Tokyo forms a vast urban area.

Kansai Region

In Kansai, Osaka and Kobe together formed a single urban area, whereas Kyoto, Nara and Wakayama each were defined as separated urban areas.

Chukyo Region

In this region, beside Nagoya area, 5 other urban areas, Toyota, Anjo-Kariya-Chiryu, Okazaki, Toyohashi and Hamamatsu, have been elicited.

Chugoku and Kyushu Regions

Hiroshima, Fukuyama, Kurashiki, Okayama, Kita-Kyushu and Fukuoka formed 6 urban areas.

Other Urban Areas

For more of a trial purpose, urban areas of Kanazawa and Fukui were defined.

Limited Differences from DID

Below is the comparison of mdbUA to the existing DID. This DID was retrieved from the census data of 2010. The results showed they were almost identical.

　　　　　　　　　　　　Toyota

Toyohashi　　　　　　　　　　　.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Nara

Kanazawa　　　　　　　　.

The existing DID has been used to indicate urban areas in Japan so far. As shown, there were few differences between the two. Thus the urban area definitions based on mdbUA can also be considered reliable and valid enough.