Urban Employment Area

A map of Tokyo MEA in 2015.
A map showing Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya MEAs in 2015.

Urban Employment Area (都市雇用圏, Toshi Koyō-ken) is a definition of metropolitan areas used in Japan, defined by the Center for Spatial Information Service of the University of Tokyo. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan.[1] It is different from the definition of metropolitan areas defined in census by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the latter scheme, see the List of metropolitan areas in Japan article.

The basic principle of UEA is similar to that of the Statistics Bureau definition; a central city and its associated outlying municipalities with certain numbers of commuters. A UEA with at least 50,000 DID (Densely Inhabited District) population is called Metropolitan Employment Area (大都市雇用圏, Dai-toshi Koyō-ken) or MEA for short in English. A UEA with at least 10,000 and less than 50,000 DID population is called Micropolitan Employment Area (小都市雇用圏, Shō-toshi Koyō-ken) or McEA for short in English.

  1. ^ 経済産業省の地域政策におけるエリア概念について (PDF) (Report) (in Japanese). 2014. p. 3.