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Kanto region
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The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan.
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Encyclopedia
| Kanto region Data | | Sum 1 metropolis 6 prefectures | | Area | 32,423.90km˛ | | General population | 42,124,194
(September 2008) | | Pop Density | 1,299.17/km˛
(Sept 2008) | |
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region encompasses seven prefectures which overlaps the Greater Tokyo Area: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kanto plain. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that form the land borders.
History
The heartland of feudal power during the Kamakura period and again in the Edo period, the Kanto became the center of modern development. Within the Greater Tokyo Area and especially the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, the Kanto houses not only Japan's seat of government but also the largest group of universities and cultural institutions, the greatest population, and a large industrial zone. Although most of the Kanto plain is used for residential, commercial, or industrial construction, it is still farmed. Rice is the principal crop, although the zone around Tokyo and Yokohama has been landscaped to grow garden produce for the metropolitan market.
A watershed moment of Japan's modern history took place in the late Taisho period: The Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The quake, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and ravaged the Tokyo and Yokohama areas, occurred at a time when Japan was still reeling from the economic recession in reaction to the high-flying years during World War I.
Operation Coronet, the proposed Allied invasion of Japan during World War II was scheduled to land at the Kanto plain. Most of the United States military bases on the island of Honshu are situated on the Kanto plain. These include Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Yokota Air Base, Yokosuka Naval Base, and Camp Zama.
The name Kanto literally means "East of the Barrier." The name Kanto is nowadays generally considered to mean the region east of the Hakone checkpoint.
Subdivisions and greater Kanto
Subdivisions
North and South
The most often used subdivision of the region is dividing it to consisting of Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma Prefectures and consisting of Saitama (sometimes classified North), Chiba, the Tokyo Metropolis (sometimes singulated) and Kanagawa Prefectures. South Kanto is often regarded as synonymous with the Greater Tokyo Area.
The Japanese House of Representatives' divides it into the electorate which consists of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Saitama Prefectures, Tokyo electorate, and the electorate which consists of Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures. (Note that Yamanashi is out of Kanto region in the orthodox definition.)
East and West
This division is not often but sometimes used.
- Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba Prefectures.
- Gunma, Saitama, Tokyo, Kanagawa (and sometimes Yamanashi) Prefectures.
Inland and Coastal
This division is sometimes used in economics and geography. The border can be modified if the topography is taken for prefectural boundaries.
- Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama (and sometimes Yamanashi) Prefectures.
- Ibaraki, Chiba, Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefectures.
Greater Kanto
Due to influence from Tokyo and partly Nagoya's remoteness from Yamanashi, Nagano and Niigata Prefectures of Ko-shin-etsu subregion and Shizuoka Prefecture in Chubu region some organisations define multiple versions of "greater Kanto" with their own names for their convenience. The Japanese national government defines the as Kanto region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. Japan's national public broadcaster NHK uses involving Yamanashi, Nagano and Niigata Prefectures for regional programming and administration.
Cities
The Kanto region is the most highly developed, urbanized, and industrialized part of Japan. Tokyo and Yokohama form a single industrial complex with a concentration of light and heavy industry along Tokyo Bay. Other major cities in the area include Kawasaki (in Kanagawa Prefecture); Saitama (in Saitama Prefecture); and Chiba (in Chiba Prefecture). Smaller cities, farther away from the coast, house substantial light and automotive industries. The average population density reached 1,192 persons per square kilometre in 1991.
See also
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