City Mayors: Largest Japanese cities

Almost nine million people live in Japan's capital Tokyo

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More than 63 million people
live in Japan's largest cities
Research by Yasunori Sato

2 May 2012: Japan has 12 cities with populations of more than one million people. Almost 100 million Japanese, or 78 per cent of the country’s total population of 127.4 million, live in urban areas. The total population of Japan’s largest 103 cities amounts to 63.9 million or just over half of all the country's residents.

Tokyo, with almost nine million inhabitants, is by far the largest Japanese city. (The Greater Tokyo region is estimated to have a population of some 13 million). In fact the number of residents in the Japanese capital is greater then the combined population of the next three largest cities Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya. Until 1868 Tokyo was called Edo. The name change took place when Tokyo became the country’s capital in place of Kyoto. The name Tokyo means 'eastern capital'.

With a population of 3.7 million, Yokohama, south of Tokyo, is Japan’s second largest city. It is the country’s largest port and a manufacturing and ship building centre.

Japan’s third-largest city, Osaka, is the country’s third most important seaport and home to many leading Japanese manufacturers. Kyoto, known worldwide as the city where the Kyoto treaty on the environment was signed, was the Japanese capital for more than 1,000 years until the government was moved to Tokyo in 1868. However, Kyoto is still Japan’s religious centre.

Japan's largest cities

Rank	City	Population	Mayor
1	Tokyo	8,956,000	Shintaro Ishihara (Governor of Tokyo metropolitan area)
2	Yokohama	3,690,000	Fumiko Hayashi
3	Osaka	2,670,000	Toru Hashimoto
4	Nagoya	2,266,000	Takashi Kawamura
5	Sapporo	1,906,000	Fumio Ueda
6	Kobe	1,544,000	Tatsuo Yada
7	Fukuoka	1,482,000	Soichiro Takashima
8	Kyoto	1,470,000	Daisaku Kadokawa
9	Kawasaki	1,413,000	Takao Abe
10	Saitama	1,230,000	Hayato Shimizu
11	Hiroshima	1,178,000	Kazumi Matsui
12	Sendai	1,045,000	Emiko Okuyama
13	Kitakyushu	985,000	Kenji Kitahashi
14	Chiba	962,000	Toshihito Kumagai
15	Setagaya	881,000	Nobuto Hosaka
16	Sakai	842,000	Osami Takeyama
17	Niigata	812,000	Akira Shinoda
18	Hamamatsu	797,000	Yasutomo Suzuki
19	Kumamoto	734,000	Seishi Kouyama
20	Sagamihara	719,000	Toshio Kayama
21	Nerima	715,000	Toyoshiro Shimura
22	Shizuoka	712,000	Nobuhiro Tanabe
23	Okayama	711,000	Shigeo Takaya
24	Kagoshima	537,000
25	Funabashi	533,000
26	Higashi-Osaka	518,000
27	Amagasaki	501,000
28	Hachioji	466,000
29	Matsudo	456,000
30	Himeji	454,000
31	Nagasaki	445,000
32	Matsuyama	444,000
33	Kanazawa	443,000
34	Kawaguchi	439,000
35	Ichikawa	437,000
36	Yokosuka	433,000
37	Nishinomiya	428,000
38	Utsunomiya	427,000
39	Urawa	418,000
40	Kurashiki	415,000
41	Gifu	411,000
42	Toyonaka	410,000
43	Oita	409,000
44	Omiya	404,000
45	Wakayama	397,000
46	Hirakata	391,000
47	Fukuyama	366,000
48	Takatsuki	360,000
49	Asahikawa	359,000
50	Iwaki	356,000
51	Fujisawa	351,000
52	Nara	350,000
53	Machida	349,000
54	Nagano	347,000
55	Suita	345,000
56	Toyohashi	338,000
57	Toyota	332,000
58	Takamatsu	330,000
59	Toyama	321,000
60	Kochi	317,000
61	Koriyama	315,000
62	Hakodate	307,000
63	Okazaki	307,000
64	Kashiwa	306,000
65	Kawagoe	305,000
66	Naha	304,000
67	Tokorozawa	303,000
68	Akita	302,000
69	Aomori	288,000
70	Miyazaki	287,000
71	Maebashi	286,000
72	Koshigaya	285,000
73	Yao	278,000
74	Fukushima	277,000
75	Yokkaichi	274,000
76	Akashi	271,000
77	Kasugai	267,000
78	Tokushima	264,000
79	Shimonoseki	263,000
80	Ichinomiya	262,000
81	Otsu	260,000
82	Ichihara	258,000
83	Neyagawa	257,000
84	Ibaraki	254,000
85	Fukui	253,000
86	Yamagata	249,000
87	Hiratsuka	246,000
88	Sasebo	245,000
89	Shimizu	242,000
90	Hachinohe	241,000
91	Kakogawa	240,000
92	Takasaki	236,000
93	Morioka	235,000
94	Mito	234,000
95	Kurume	228,000
96	Fuji	222,000
97	Kure	217,000
98	Numazu	211,000
99	Fuchu	209,000
100	Soka	206,000
101	Kushiro	205,000
102	Hitachi	202,000
103	Takarazuka	201,000