KantÅ region
Kanto (关 东 地方jap, Chiho ) is a region of Japan on the main island Honshu. The name comes from the fact that the region east (东, tō ) the border station (关 所, sekisho, the On- reading of the first character is kan) Hakone is located. The North Kantos with the prefectures of Gunma, Tochigi and Ibaraki is similar to how the rural Tohoku region. The prefectures of Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, however, are mainly influenced by metropolitan Tokyo.
Physically, the region consists mainly of the Kanto plain (关 东 平野, Kanto heiya ) - the largest floor area level of Japan - in the north and west of the Kanto Mountains area (关 东山 地, Kantō - sanchi ), in the northeast foothills of Abukuma mountain country (阿 武 隈 山地, Abukuma sanchi ) and in the southeast of the Boso Peninsula.
On September 1, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale, the city of Yokohama and parts of the adjacent Tokyo. Over 140,000 people died and more than 1.9 million were left homeless.
Attractions
The most important tourist destination in Kantō is undoubtedly the Japanese capital Tokyo. Together with Japan's second largest city of Yokohama and Kawasaki is a city of millions, the largest metropolitan area in the world with over 36 million residents. In addition to the vibrant cities attract testimonies of Japanese culture and history as the old seat of government Kamakura in the southwest and the grave sites of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Nikko ( UNESCO World Heritage ) in the north. Magnificent landscapes offer the mountainous Tama region in the west, in the western Pacific Ocean beaches lure Chiba.
Prefectures
The region consists of seven prefectures, which together comprise 32423.90 km ² ( about the size of North Rhine -Westphalia ) and 42.4 million inhabitants are at an average population density of 1309 inhabitants / km ² (as of June 1, 2010):
Together with the region Kōshin'etsu ( Nagano prefectures, Niigata and Yamanashi ) is the Kantō region wholesale Kantō (広 域 关 东 圏, Koiki Kanto - ken).