Quote:
Originally Posted by isaidso
Does anyone have a population estimate for the Osaka-Nagoya-Hanamatsu-Tokyo corridor (including all the towns in between)? I was under the impression that it was more populated than Bos-Wash.
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On the ground, Nagoya and Osaka are separated and feel like it, even though they are geographically fairly close, about 150km away from eachother. There is a natural barrier there in Mt. Gozaisho and everything there is very rural, crickets, cows and all that. (you can even see it in the break of night lights from space). Kanto region by itself has 43 million, but some of it is rural. Kanto metro area is 35.6 million and I'd say its all what we would consider urban pop. Greater Tokyo definitely feels bigger than greater NYC. However, places like Utsunomiya are not included, and in my opinion they should be. For example, when you're in Tokyo, places like Utsunomiya and Mito show on the local JR map and they are not included in the 35.6 million number...Mt.Fuji also should be included, all the way to greater Nagoya (8.7 million pop.) If you take everything from Ibaraki all the way down to Nagoya there should easily be 50 million pop, and on the ground this region does feel interconnected. I'd say after the regions in China, this region is the most populous as well as the most connected. The problem is demographics. Unlike China, most of the smaller metros and suburban areas in the region are losing population, and when I was around Mito it was already noticeable there. If the current trends don't change Tokyo itself will start losing population by 2020. It would be nice if someone would compile growth rates for each megalopolis. I am pretty sure places like Pearl river delta have crazy growth rates compared to others.