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