Kyoto Urban Area (京都都市圏)

Kyoto urban area, which is the designation of Kyoto City and its peripheral satellite cities collectively, means an economic zone surrounding Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture.

Summary
The population of Kyoto urban area as of 2000 is about 2.58 million, which is the fourth scale in Japan. It ranges from the central part of Kyoto Prefecture to the south bank of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. It embraces two prefectural capitals namely Kyoto City and Otsu City. For this reason, sometimes 'Keiji,' which is the combination of characters one from 'Kyoto' Prefecture and one from 'Shiga' Prefecture, or alternatively 'Keishin' which is the combination of characters one from 'Kyoto' City and one from 'Otsu' City, is used to mean Kyoto urban area.

Occasionally designations of 'Keihanshin' or 'Keihanshin Metropolitan area' may be used to mean Kyoto urban area, Osaka urban area, and Kobe urban area all together.

Definition
10 percent Urban Area
According to the national census in 2000 on 'Population of students and the employed 15 years old or more by place of work and schooling according to usual place of residence,' the population of Urban Employment Area (UEA) (10 percent commuting area: A suburb more than 10 percent of whose population commuting to the central city) surrounding Kyoto City is about 2.58 million.

A change in the Urban Area
A change in the Urban Employment Area (UEA) (10 percent commuting area)

Gray colored column with a mark '-' indicates that the autonomous body is not included in the 10 percent commuting area.

On April 1, 1997, Kyotanabe City of Tsuzuki County became Kyotanabe City by incorporation of city.

On October 1, 2001, Ritto Town, Kurita County became Ritto City by incorporation of city.

On October 1, 2004, two cities, namely Yasu Town and Chuzu Town both in Yasu County, became Yasu City by municipal merger.

On April 1, 2005, Kyoto City incorporated Keihoku Town to make it a part of Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City.

On October 11, 2005, three cities, namely Tanba Town, Mizuho Town (Kyoto Prefecture), and Wachi Town, were merged to become Kyotanba Town.

On January 1, 2006, four towns, namely Sonobe Town, Yagi Town, and Hiyoshi Town in Funai-gun County (Kyoto Prefecture), and Miyama Town in Kitakuwada County (Kyoto Prefecture) merged to make Nantan City.

On March 20, 2006, Otsu City absorbed Shiga Town (Shiga Prefecture).

[Original Japanese]