27-517: [REDACTED] The Tazawako Line ( 田沢湖線 , Tazawako-sen ) is a railway line operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) connecting Morioka Station in Morioka, Iwate and Ōmagari Station in Daisen, Akita , Japan. Akita Shinkansen Komachi trains travel over the line, which was regauged in 1997 from 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ) to 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). The section from Morioka to Shizukuishi opened on 25 June 1921, as
54-521: A (broken) loop about 40 kilometres (25 mi) from central Tokyo. Situated along the loop are the major cities of Yokohama (to the south of Tokyo), Hachiōji (to the west), Ōmiya (now part of Saitama City, to the north), and Chiba (to the east). Within the Route 16 loop, the coastline of Tokyo Bay is heavily industrialised, with the Keihin Industrial Area stretching from Tokyo down to Yokohama, and
81-725: A 15% shareholding in West Midlands Trains with Abellio and Mitsui that commenced operating the West Midlands franchise in England in December 2017. JR East sold their stake to Abellio in September 2021. The same consortium were also listed to be bidding for the South Eastern franchise . Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in
108-586: A different population figure, granularity, methodology, and spatial association. Notes and sources: All figures issued by Japan Statistics Bureau, except for Metro Employment Area, a study by Center for Spatial Information Service , the University of Tokyo . Abbreviations: CF for National Census Final Data (every 5 years by JSB), CR for Civil Registry (compiled by local governments, monthly as per legal requirement), CP for Census Preliminary. The National Capital Region ( 首都圏 , Shutoken ) of Japan refers to
135-735: A wholly owned subsidiary of the government-owned JNR Settlement Corporation for several years, and was not completely sold to the public until 2002. Following the breakup, JR East ran the operations on former JNR lines in the Greater Tokyo Area , the Tōhoku region , and surrounding areas. Railway lines of JR East primarily serve the Kanto and Tohoku regions , along with adjacent areas in Kōshin'etsu region ( Niigata , Nagano , Yamanashi ) and Shizuoka prefectures . The Tokyo–Osaka Tōkaidō Shinkansen
162-537: Is a front for a revolutionary political organization called the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) . An investigation of this is ongoing. The East Japan Railway Culture Foundation is a non-profit organization established by JR East for the purpose of developing a "richer railway culture". The Railway Museum in Saitama is operated by the foundation. JR East held
189-702: Is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as JR Higashi-Nihon ( JR東日本 , Jeiāru Higashi-Nihon ) in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi , Shibuya , Tokyo , next to Shinjuku Station . It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange (it formerly had secondary listings in
216-511: Is easily considered the world's largest in terms of both daily passenger throughput with a daily trips of over 40 million (20 million different passengers) as well as physical extent with approximately 2,578 kilometres (1,602 mi) of track. Shinjuku station is used by an average of 3.34 million people per day, making it the world's busiest train station. Some 57 percent of all Greater Tokyo residents used rail as their primary means of transport in 2001. JR East and many other carriers crisscross
243-580: Is legally classified as a to ( 都 ) , which translates as "metropolis", and is treated as one of the forty-seven prefectures of Japan . The metropolis is administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as a whole. Central Tokyo, situated in the eastern portion of Tokyo Metropolis, was once incorporated as Tokyo City , which was dismantled during World War II . Its subdivisions have been reclassified as special wards ( 特別区 , tokubetsu-ku ) . The twenty three special wards currently have
270-567: Is owned and operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), although it stops at several JR East stations. These lines have sections inside the Tokyo suburban area (Japanese: 東京近郊区間 ) designated by JR East. This does not necessarily mean that the lines are fully inside the Greater Tokyo Area . Below is the full list of limited express and express train services operated on JR East lines as of 2022. During fiscal 2017,
297-543: The Keiyō Industrial Zone from Tokyo eastwards to Chiba. Along the periphery of the main urban area are numerous new suburban housing developments such as the Tama New Town . The landscape is relatively flat compared to most of Japan, most of it comprising low hills. Outside the Route 16 loop the landscape becomes more rural. To the southwest is an area known as Shōnan , which contains various cities and towns along
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#1733105030582324-562: The Nagoya and Osaka stock exchanges), is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and is one of three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index, the others being JR Central and JR West . JR East was incorporated on 1 April 1987 after being spun off from the government-run Japanese National Railways (JNR). The spin-off was nominally "privatization", as the company was actually
351-403: The 23 special wards, formerly treated as a single city but now governed as separate municipalities, and containing many major commercial centres such as Shinjuku , Shibuya , Ikebukuro and Ginza . Around the 23 special wards are a multitude of suburban cities which merge seamlessly into each other to form a continuous built up area, circumnavigated by the heavily travelled Route 16 which forms
378-640: The Greater Tokyo Area as defined by the Metropolitan Area Readjustment Act [ ja ] ( 首都圏整備法 , Shutoken-seibi-hō ) of 1956, which defines it as "Tokyo and its surrounding area declared by government ordinance." The government ordinance defined it as Tokyo and all six prefectures in the Kantō region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. While this includes all of Greater Tokyo, it also includes sparsely populated mountain areas as well as
405-576: The Greater Tokyo Area, and between 1,000 and 1,200 railway stations depending on one's definition of the area, most designed for heavy use, usually long enough to accommodate 10-car (200 metres (660 ft) long) trains. Stations are designed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of passengers at any given time, with miles of connecting tunnels linking vast department stores and corporate offices. Tokyo Station has underground connections that stretch well over 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), and Shinjuku Station has well over 200 exits. Greater Tokyo's Railway Network
432-586: The Hashiba Light Railway ( 橋場軽便 ) , and was extended to Hashiba on 2 September 1922. Services to Hashiba Station ended in the 1940s. The Omagari - Jindai section was opened in 1921 and extended to Tazawako in 1923. In 1964, the Shizukuishi to Akabuchi section opened, and upon completion of the 3,915 m (2.433 mi) Sengan Tunnel, the Akabuchi to Tazawako section opened on 20 October 1966, completing
459-684: The busiest stations in the JR East network by average daily passenger count were: JR East co-sponsors the JEF United Chiba J-League football club , which was formed by a merger between the JR East and Furukawa Electric company teams. JR East aims to reduce its carbon emissions by half, as measured over the period 1990–2030. This would be achieved by increasing the efficiency of trains and company-owned thermal power stations and by developing hybrid trains . The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has stated that JR East's official union
486-1181: The coast of Sagami Bay , and to the west the area is mountainous. Many rivers run through the area, the major ones being Arakawa and Tama River . Tokyo metropolitan area is the second largest metropolitan economy in the world only behind New York . Sources: Conversion rates – Exchange rates – OECD Data The Greater Tokyo Area has two major airports, Tokyo International Airport , commonly known as Haneda Airport (once chiefly domestic, now turning international) and Narita International Airport (chiefly international as well). Minor facilities include Chōfu and Ibaraki Airport . Tokyo Heliport serves helicopter traffic, including police, fire, and news. Japan Civil Aviation Bureau handles air traffic in large part but various military facilities handle air traffic in part: Hyakuri Air Base ( Japan Air Self-Defense Force ), Utsunomiya Air Field ( Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ), and Yokota Air Base ( United States Air Force ). Greater Tokyo has an extensive railway network comprising high-speed rail , commuter rails , subways , monorails , private lines , trams and others. There are around 136 individual rail lines in
513-643: The far-flung Bonin Islands which are administered under Tokyo. Using the "One Metropolis Three Prefectures" definition, Tokyo is 13,555.65 square kilometres (5,233.87 sq mi), a similar size to that of Los Angeles County , and almost two-thirds smaller than the combined statistical area of New York City , at 30,671 square kilometres (11,842 sq mi) and 21.9 million people. Other metropolitan areas such as Greater Jakarta are considerably more compact as well as more densely populated than Greater Tokyo. (populations listed for those over 300,000) Tokyo
540-639: The legal status of cities, with individual mayors and city councils, and they call themselves "cities" in English. However, when listing Japan's largest cities , Tokyo's twenty three wards are often counted as a single city. Western Tokyo , known as the Tama Area ( Tama-chiiki 多摩地域) comprises a number of municipalities, including these suburban cities: The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside Tokyo Metropolis are: The other cities in Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama Prefectures are: source: stat.go.jp census 2005 In
567-746: The line. Freight services ceased in 1982, the year the entire line was electrified. In 1997, the line was converted to 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge, and became part of the Akita Shinkansen , with standard-gauge electric multiple unit (EMU) trains providing local services on the line. In January 2022 it was announced that Maegata Station would be added between Morioka Station and Ōkama Station . Maegata station opened for service on 18 March 2023. As of 2022, 701-5000 series trains belonging to Akita General Rolling Stock Center are used on this line. East Japan Railway Company The East Japan Railway Company
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#1733105030582594-521: The major metropolitan area (MMA) definition used by the Japanese Statistics Bureau, the following cities in Ibaraki , Tochigi , Gunma , Yamanashi , and Shizuoka Prefectures are included: Tighter definitions for Greater Tokyo do not include adjacent metropolitan areas of Numazu - Mishima (approx. 450,000) to the southwest, Maebashi - Takasaki - Ōta - Ashikaga (approx. 1,500,000 people) on
621-462: The northwest, and Greater Utsunomiya [ ja ] (approx. 1,000,000) to the north. If they are included, Greater Tokyo's population would be around 39 million. Takasaki-Maebashi is included as part of the Tokyo-Yokohama area in the definition of urban areas by Demographia. At the centre of the main urban area (approximately the first 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Tokyo Station ) are
648-611: The region with a network of rail lines. The most important carriers include Keihin Kyūkō Electric Railway ( Keikyū ), Keisei Electric Railway , Keiō Electric Railway , Odakyū Electric Railway , Seibu Railway , Tōbu Railway , and Tōkyū Corporation . In addition to Tokyo's two subway systems — Tokyo Metro and Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation ( Toei and Toden lines), Yokohama also has two subway lines . The Tokyo Monorail provides an important shuttle service between Haneda Airport and Hammatsucho station on
675-427: The second wealthiest metropolitan area in the world also behind New York. There are various definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area, each of which tries to incorporate different aspects. Some definitions are clearly defined by law or government regulation, some are based coarsely on administrative areas, while others are for research purposes such as commuting patterns or distance from Central Tokyo . Each definition has
702-490: The total population at 38,140,000. It covers an area of approximately 13,500 km (5,200 mi ), giving it a population density of 2,642 people/km . It is the second-largest single metropolitan area in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 8,547 km (3,300 mi ), behind only the New York City metropolitan area at 11,642 km (4,495 mi ). With over US$ 2 trillion GDP Tokyo remains
729-521: The world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba , Gunma , Ibaraki , Kanagawa , Saitama , and Tochigi ) as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi of the neighboring Chūbu region . In Japanese , it is referred to by various terms, one of the most common being Capital Region ( 首都圏 , Shuto-ken ) . As of 2016, the United Nations estimates
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