Urban Employment Area

A map of Tokyo UEA in 2010.

A map showing Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya UEAs in 2010.

Urban Employment Area (都市雇用圏 Toshi Koyō-ken) is a definition of metropolitan areas, defined by the Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. The Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan.^[1] It is different from the definition of metropolitan areas defined in census by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the latter scheme, see the List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population article.

The basic principle of UEA is similar to that of the Statistics Bureau definition; a central city and its associated outlying municipalities with certain amounts of commuters. A UEA with at least 50,000 DID (Densely Inhabited District) population is called Metropolitan Employment Area (大都市雇用圏 Dai-toshi Koyō-ken) or MEA for short in English. A UEA with at least 10,000 and less than 50,000 DID population is called Micropolitan Employment Area (小都市雇用圏 Shō-toshi Koyō-ken) or McEA for short in English.

Definition

Central city

• If a municipality has at least 10,000 DID population, and is not a suburb of any other municipalities, it is defined as a central city.
• Even if a municipality is a suburb of another, it can still be defined as a central city. In this case, a municipality must have workers working there more than those living there. It must also have the DID population of at least 10,000, or a third of the population of the central city.

Suburb

• If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to a central city B, A is defined as a (primary) suburb of B.
  • If there are multiple such cities for a suburb A, the one with the most commuters from A is defined as A's central city.
• If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to another suburb B, and if no other municipalities have more commuters from A, A is defined as a secondary suburb or lower of B.
• If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to B and vice versa, the one with the higher percentage of commuters is defined as a suburb of another.
• If a central city comprises multiple municipalities, numbers of commuters to all those municipalities are counted for the calculations above.

Top 100 Urban Employment Areas in Japan

Source: Urban Employment Area (UEA) Code Table, "地域経済の将来動向分析に関する調査研究" [A study on the future trend analysis of the regional economy] (in Japanese).

• W/L here is jūgyō jōjū jinkōhi (従業常住人口比), the ratio of workers in the area, against the number of workers living in the area.
• DID population here is a population of central city. If an area has multiple central cities, only the most populous one among them is counted.
• A 2010 population decrease from 2005 is written in red figures.
• Metropolitan Employment Area (MEA) is listed on white background. Micropolitan Employment Area (McEA) is listed on yellow background.
• Prefectural capital is numbered with blue background.
• 1980 ranks exclude Kurashiki MEA, which was merged with Okayama MEA in 2000. Those under No. 100 are marked as "-".

2010	1980	Name	Pop. (2010)	Pop. (1980)	DID (2010)	W/L (2010)	GDP (in billion US$) (2010)[2][3]
1	1	TokyoTokyo MEA (ja)	34,498,979	26,624,003	8,945,695	1.62	1,797.9
2	2	OsakaOsaka MEA (ja)	12,238,814	11,170,018	2,664,819	1.73	516.8
3	3	Nagoya MEA (ja)	5,490,453	4,538,832	2,216,845	1.23	256.3
4	4	Kyoto MEA (ja)	2,679,094	2,361,205	1,403,631	1.12	115.3
5	6	Fukuoka MEA (ja)	2,495,552	1,773,129	1,405,700	1.21	101.6
6	5	Kobe MEA (ja)	2,431,076	2,047,561	1,440,411	1.03	96.0
7	7	Sapporo MEA (ja)	2,341,599	1,751,996	1,846,399	1.01	84.7
8	10	Sendai MEA	1,574,942	1,248,616	931,677	1.13	61.7
9	14	Okayama MEA	1,532,146	750,188	478,993	1.06	63.1
10	54	Maebashi MEA	1,453,528	341,331	200,675	1.07	59.8
11	9	Hiroshima MEA	1,411,848	1,327,198	1,012,198	1.03	61.3
12	8	Kitakyushu MEA	1,370,169	1,524,747	877,833	1.05	55.7
13	13	Hamamatsu MEA	1,133,879	825,503	477,648	0.99	54.3
14	25	Utsunomiya MEA	1,120,057	547,545	384,583	1.07	50.7
15	12	Kumamoto MEA	1,102,398	836,892	579,318	1.04	39.8
16	15	Niigata MEA	1,071,152	726,983	583,329	1.02	43.3
17	11	Shizuoka MEA	1,001,597	966,074	625,147	1.05	45.8
18	16	Gifu MEA	831,430	711,981	291,254	1.04	32.2
19	20	Naha MEA	830,525	616,010	314,951	1.19	26.8
20	22	Takamatsu MEA	830,040	592,555	212,803	1.09	34.7
21	24	Nagasaki MEA	803,828	553,101	327,791	1.06	27.9
22	19	Kanazawa MEA	743,647	626,523	377,419	1.13	31.7
23	17	Himeji MEA	743,427	709,219	384,137	1.03	33.6
24	21	Oita MEA	743,323	608,653	326,541	1.04	28.9
25	18	Kagoshima MEA	731,477	662,737	489,699	1.02	26.4
26	79	Tsukuba MEA	725,858	216,337	74,937	1.19	37.1
27	36	Tokushima MEA	680,467	478,772	186,703	1.16	28.4
28	28	Mito MEA	678,969	532,911	167,757	1.18	30.3
29	27	Toyohashi MEA	676,333	540,880	266,770	0.96	31.0
30	39	Fukui MEA	660,910	454,495	167,518	1.17	28.7
31	32	Toyama MEA	646,574	504,353	223,250	1.11	49.5[4]
32	26	Matsuyama MEA	642,841	542,188	428,201	1.01	24.5
33	29	Yokkaichi MEA	621,689	522,233	211,269	1.07	29.1
34	30	Fukuyama MEA	612,988	517,514	254,721	1.01	31.5
35	31	Nagano MEA	602,781	514,136	253,351	1.07	24.9
36	37	Kofu MEA	601,592	476,543	161,234	1.21	25.2
37	23	Wakayama MEA	584,852	566,668	284,227	1.08	24.6
38	55	Koriyama MEA	554,194	341,004	239,496	1.09	20.2
39	40	Yamagata MEA	544,518	415,965	178,410	1.11	20.0
40	34	Kochi MEA	534,981	490,401	276,087	1.04	17.5
41	66	Tsu MEA	512,296	280,045	134,315	1.04	23.8
42	35	Numazu MEA	509,249	487,606	166,164	1.12	22.9
43	48	Miyazaki MEA	506,332	356,771	276,902	1.02	18.2
44	56	Toyota MEA	481,585	340,596	241,352	1.17	28.3
45	45	Morioka MEA	474,395	382,706	230,447	1.11	17.9
46	53	Fukushima MEA	456,996	343,063	187,906	1.06	18.0
47	46	Matsumoto MEA	450,869	371,850	145,146	1.11	18.5
48	94	Ota MEA	449,748	161,945	81,779	1.13	21.6
49	44	Kurume MEA	432,441	384,264	183,547	1.00	16.8
50	43	Akita MEA	412,968	384,718	254,970	1.08	16.0
51	63	Okazaki MEA	410,287	297,404	278,982	0.88	18.4
52	60	Saga MEA	405,062	304,703	138,858	1.12	15.2
53	52	Fuji MEA	395,039	345,720	201,751	1.02	18.1
54	42	Asahikawa MEA	386,048	394,532	319,717	1.01	14.3
55	68	Nagaoka MEA	368,043	274,394	133,277	1.04	15.7
56	47	Hitachi MEA	364,860	368,405	161,803	1.15	17.2
57	41	Hakodate MEA	355,622	395,403	240,101	1.05	12.7
58	51	Iwaki MEA	347,667	347,408	164,757	0.99	13.0
59	-	Narita MEA	337,076	-	74,379	1.55	16.7
60	58	Hachinohe MEA	335,854	331,608	160,720	1.08	12.5
61	62	Odawara MEA	335,188	302,668	172,603	0.94	-
62	57	Aomori MEA	325,458	336,677	229,742	1.03	12.3
63	65	Ogaki MEA	323,221	280,945	92,961	1.09	13.0
64	-	Yamaguchi MEA	313,239	147,867	91,931	1.02	14.6
65	50	Takaoka MEA	309,264	347,645	87,615	1.02	49.5[4]
66	67	Hirosaki MEA	305,342	278,234	121,109	1.10	10.6
67	61	Sasebo MEA	304,578	304,678	152,951	1.02	11.1
68	82	Matsue MEA	292,366	205,031	104,925	1.08	11.7
69	49	Shimonoseki MEA	280,947	348,875	184,034	0.98	12.1
70	75	Okinawa MEA	277,006	236,398	112,748	0.96	7.1
71	-	Kamisu McEA	276,786	-	21,481	1.16
72	64	Shunan MEA	273,489	295,506	91,253	1.08	13.0
73	78	Obihiro MEA	262,600	221,659	150,337	1.08	9.9
74	-	Kariya MEA	258,206	137,173	115,421	1.39	15.4
75	-	Nasushiobara McEA	257,649	100,083	31,654	0.92
76	69	Omuta MEA	246,849	254,723	102,308	1.08	8.6
77	87	Miyakonojo MEA	243,623	189,065	66,079	1.08	8.5
78	59	Kure MEA	239,973	320,342	163,680	0.98	11.0
79	74	Tottori MEA	239,829	239,972	99,472	1.07	8.4
80	77	Joetsu MEA	239,356	227,947	83,675	1.00	9.9
81	76	Ube MEA	238,322	229,729	90,799	1.01	10.7
82	70	Yonago MEA	234,641	246,581	73,107	1.07	8.1
83	84	Niihama MEA	233,826	196,483	89,238	1.04	9.3
84	83	Aizuwakamatsu MEA	232,992	197,672	88,013	1.11	9.0
85	-	Higashiomi McEA	230,251	-	31,654	0.91
86	-	Komatsu McEA	229,000	141,582	34,162	1.02
87	-	Sanjo MEA	222,512	109,386	52,083	1.09	9.7
88	-	Higashihiroshima McEA	218,779	-	46,698	0.97
89	-	Koga MEA	217,535	-	51,080	0.90	9.2
90	80	Ueda MEA	217,412	205,775	52,481	1.03	8.8
91	86	Oyama MEA	216,948	190,194	92,871	1.02	9.7
92	85	Ishinomaki MEA	213,780	194,680	94,342	1.02	7.9
93	72	Kushiro MEA	213,616	242,331	160,602	1.00	8.2
94	-	Handa MEA	211,880	144,056	103,887	0.99	9.1
95	-	Osaki McEA	210,789	65,525	37,002	0.97
96	-	Nakatsu McEA	208,901	97,817	25,539	1.05
97	-	Suwa McEA	204,875	114,705	16,637	1.13
98	73	Muroran MEA	200,231	241,371	77,222	1.19	7.4
99	-	Kakegawa McEA	198,104	64,843	29,866	1.03
100	88	Iizuka MEA	196,546	188,420	53,622	1.02	7.2

These areas have multiple central cities. Municipal names are as of 2010.

• Tokyo: 8; Special wards of Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Tachikawa, Musashino, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Atsugi.
• Osaka: 4; Osaka, Sakai, Moriguchi, Kadoma, and Higashiosaka.
• Nagoya: 2; Nagoya and Komaki.
• Sapporo: 2; Sapporo and Otaru.
• Maebashi: 3; Maebashi, Takasaki, and Isesaki
• Naha: 2; Naha and Urasoe.
• Tsukuba: 2; Tsukuba and Tsuchiura.
• Ota: 2; Ota and Oizumi.
• Kamisu: 2; Kamisu and Kashima.
• Nasushiobara: 2; Nasushiobara and Otawara.
• Sanjo: 2; Sanjo and Tsubame.

These areas changed their names between 1980 and 2000, as the most populated central cities have changed.

• Tsuchiura UEA changed to Tsukuba UEA after 1995.
• Kimitsu UEA changed to Kisarazu UEA after 1990.

See also

• List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population
• List of Japanese cities by population

References

1. 経済産業省の地域政策におけるエリア概念について (PDF) (Report) (in Japanese). 2014. p. 3.
2. Yoshitsugu Kanemoto. "Metropolitan Employment Area (MEA) Data". Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo.
3. Conversion rates - Exchange rates - OECD Data
4. Toyama-Takaoka MEA

External links

• UEA Urban Employment Area