In Japan, it boasts of a scale second only to the Kanto Metropolitan area, ranked as one of the three major metropolitan areas in the nation and also one of the seven largest, while in the world it is ranked as the 6th to 7th largest urban area.
日本では、関東大都市圏に次ぐ規模を誇っており、三大都市圏あるいは七大都市圏の一つとされる一方、世界6～7位の大都市圏である。