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Ōsaka-Kōbe-Kyōto (Greater Osaka) is a metropolitan region encompassing the metropolitan areas of the cities of Osaka in Osaka prefecture, Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture, and Kyoto in Kyoto prefecture. The entire region has a population (as of 2000) of 18,644,000 over an area of 11,170 km².^[1] It is Japan's second most populated urban region after the Greater Tokyo Area, containing roughly 15% of Japan's population.

The GDP in this area (Osaka and Kobe) is $341 billion, one of the world's most productive region, a match even for Paris and London.^[2]

The region is often known as Keihanshin (京阪神) in the Japanese language. This name is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Kyoto (京都), Osaka (大阪), and Kobe (神戸), but using the Chinese reading instead of the corresponding Japanese reading for each of the characters taken from Osaka and Kobe.

Contents 1 Definitions 1.1 Range of distance (キロ圏) 1.2 Metropolitan Employment Area (都市雇用圏) 1.2.1 Osaka metropolitan area 1.2.2 Kyoto metropolitan area 1.2.3 Kobe metropolitan area 1.2.4 Himeji metropolitan area 1.2.5 Wakayama metropolitan area 1.3 Immediate commuter sphere (直接通勤圏) 1.4 Major metropolitan area 2 Transportation 2.1 Major Airports 2.2 Major Ports 2.3 Major Railways 2.4 Major Expressways,National highways 3 Economy 4 See also 5 References

The Japan Statistics Bureau defines the set of municipalities that are entirely or mostly within 50 km of the municipal office of Osaka-shi as one measure of the metropolitan area. As of 2000, the population for this region was 16,566,704.^[3]

The Metropolitan Employment Area is a metropolitan area definition developed at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tokyo.^[4] This definition is analogous to the Metropolitan Statistical Area concept used to delineate metropolitan areas in the United States. The basic building blocks are municipalities.

The core area is the set of municipalities that contain a densely inhabited district (DID) with a population of 50,000 or more. A DID is a group of census enumeration districts inhabited at densities of 4,000 or more persons per km². Outlying areas are those municipalities where 10% or more of the employed population work in the core area or in another outlying area. Overlaps are not allowed and an outlying area is assigned to the core area where it has the highest commuter ratio.

This definition assigns a metropolitan employment area to the following cities of the Keihanshin region: Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Himeji, and Wakayama. The lists below indicate which cities belong to which metropolitan area. Towns and villages are not listed.

The Osaka metropolitan area has a population (as of 2000) of 12,116,540^[5] and consists of the following cities:

• Core cities: Osaka, Higashiosaka, Kadoma, Moriguchi
• Outlying cities:
  • Osaka Prefecture (entire prefecture)
  • Hyōgo Prefecture (southeastern part): Amagasaki, Nishinomiya, Ashiya, Itami, Takarazuka, Kawanishi, Sanda
  • Nara Prefecture (northern part): Nara, Tenri, Yamatotakada, Yamatokoriyama, Kashihara, Sakurai, Gose, Ikoma, Kashiba, Katsuragi
  • Other cities: Nabari (Mie), Yawata (Kyoto), Hashimoto (Wakayama)

The Kyoto metropolitan area has a population (as of 2000) of 2,583,304^[5] and consists of the following cities:

• Core cities: Kyoto
• Outlying cities
  • Kyoto Prefecture (southern part): Uji, Kameoka, Joyo, Muko, Nagaokakyo, Kyotanabe
  • Shiga Prefecture (southwestern part): Otsu, Kusatsu

The Kobe metropolitan area has a population (as of 2000) of 2,296,268^[5] and consists of the following cities:

• Core cities: Kobe
• Outlying cities
  • Hyōgo Prefecture (southern part): Akashi, Kakogawa, Takasago, Miki, and Awaji

The Himeji metropolitan area has a population (as of 2000) of 741,759^[5] and consists of the following cities:

• Core cities: Himeji
• Outlying cities
  • Hyōgo Prefecture (southwestern part): Aioi, Tatsuno

The Wakayama metropolitan area has a population (as of 2000) of 573,308^[5] and consists of the following cities:

• Core cities: Wakayama
• Outlying cities
  • Wakayama Prefecture (northwestern part): Kainan

The Japan Statistics Bureau defines a major metropolitan area or MMA (大都市圏) as the set of municipalities where at least 1.5% of the resident population aged 15 and above commute to school or work in a designated city (defined as the core area).^[6] If multiple designated cities are close enough to have overlapping outlying areas, they are combined into a single multi-core area. In the 2000 census, the designated cities used to define the Keihanshin MMA were Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

This region consists of the combination of the metropolitan areas of Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and Himeji, and additionally includes several periurban areas (particularly in southern Shiga Prefecture) that are not part of the four metropolitan areas. The additional cities are (towns/villages are not listed):

• Hyōgo Prefecture: Ono, Kasai, Sasayama
• Shiga Prefecture: Hikone, Omihachiman, Moriyama, Yasu, Higashiomi, Koka, Ritto, Takashima
• Mie Prefecture: Iga
• Nara Prefecture: Gojo

As of 2000, the entire Keihanshin region had a population of 18,643,915 over an area of 11,169 km².^[1]

• Osaka International Airport
• Kansai International Airport
• Kobe Airport

• Port of Osaka
• Port of Kobe

• JR West
  • ●Kobe Line (Sanyō Main Line)
  • ●Kyoto Line (Tōkaidō Main Line)
  • ●Kosei Line (Biwako Line)
  • ●Osaka Loop Line
  • ●Hanwa Line
  • ●Kansai Main Line
  • ●Sanin Main Line / Sagano Line
  • ●Tozai Line / Gakkentoshi Line
• JR Central
  • Tōkaidō Shinkansen
• JR West
  • Sanyō Shinkansen
• Hanshin Main Line
• Keifuku Electric Railroad
  • Hankai Line
  • Hankai Uemachi Line
• Hankyu Railway
  • ●Hankyu Kobe Line
  • ●Hankyu Takarazuka Line
  • ●Hankyu Kyoto Line
• Keihan Main Line
• Kintetsu
  • Kintetsu Kashihara Line
  • Kintetsu Osaka Line
  • Kintetsu Nara Line
  • Kintetsu Minami-Osaka Line
  • Kintetsu Keihanna Line
  • Kintetsu Yoshino Line
• Nankai Electric Railway
  • Nankai Main Line
  • Nankai Koya Line
• Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway
• Osaka Municipal Subway
  • ●Chūō
  • ●Imazatosuji
  • ●Midōsuji
  • ●Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi
  • ●Sennichimae
  • ●Sakaisuji
  • ●Tanimachi
  • ●Yotsubashi
  • ●New Tram
• Kyoto Municipal Subway
  • ●Karasuma Line
  • ●Tōzai Line
• Kobe Municipal Subway
  • ●Seishin-Yamate Line
  • ●Kaigan Line
• Osaka Monorail
• Kobe Electric Railway
  • Shintetsu Arima Line
  • Shintetsu Ao Line
  • Shintetsu Sanda Line
• Sanyo Electric Railway
• Kobe Rapid Railway
• Keifuku Electric Railroad
• Nose Electric Railway
• Kobe New Transit

• Meishin Expressway
• Chūgoku Expressway
• Sanyō Expressway
• Kinki Expressway
• Maizuru Expressway ( To Maizuru )
• West-Meihan Expressway ( To Nara Prefecture,Nagoya )
• Hanwa Expressway ( To Wakayama Prefecture )
• Hanshin Expressway

• Route 1
• Route 2
• Route 9
• Route 24 (Kyoto - Nara Prefecture - Wakayama Prefecture)
• Route 25 (Osaka - Nara - Nagoya)
• Route 26 (Osaka - Wakayama)
• Route 28 (Kobe - Awaji - Tokushima, Tokushima)
• Route 171 (Kobe - Kyoto , San'yōdō)
• Route 423 (Osaka - Senri - Kameoka , "New-Midosuji")

v • d • e Mass transit in Osaka
Municipal lines	Subway: ●Chūō • ●Imazatosuji • ●Midōsuji • ●Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi • ●Sennichimae • ●Sakaisuji • ●Tanimachi • ●Yotsubashi People mover: ●New Tram
JR lines ("Urban Network")	Akō • ●Hanwa • ●Gakkentoshi • ●Kosei • ●Nara • ●Osaka Loop • ●Osaka Higashi • ●Takarazuka • ●Tōkaidō/Sanyō (Biwako - Kyoto - Kobe) • ●Tōzai • ●Yamatoji • ●Yumesaki
Other networks	Hankyū (10) • Hanshin (3) • Keihan (6) • Kintetsu (16) • Kitakyū (1) • Nankai (9) • Osaka Monorail • Semboku Rapid
Around Osaka	Hankai • Hokushin Kyūkō • Kobe New Transit (2) • Kobe Rapid (3) • Kobe Subway (2) • Kyoto Subway (2) • Noseden (2) • Randen (2) • Sanyō (2) • Shintetsu (4)
Terminals	Osaka • Umeda • Tennōji • Namba • Kyōbashi
Miscellaneous	ICOCA • PiTaPa

See also Category:Rail transport in Osaka Prefecture

• Hanshin Industrial Region (Osaka and Kobe area)
• Kansai Science City

• Kansai region
• Kamigata
• List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population
• List of metropolitan areas by population