Tokai

an economic region in Japan, on the Pacific coast of Honshu Island. It includes Aichi, Mie, and Shizuoka prefectures. Area, 18,700 sq km. Population, about 10 million (1970), 75 percent of which is urban. The most important cities are Nagoya, Shizuoka, Toyohashi, Yokkaichi, Hamamatsu, and Tsu.

Tokai, one of Japan’s largest industrial regions, accounts for about 10 percent of the national income and the country’s finished industrial production. The main branches of industry include transportation machine building (motor vehicles, aircraft, ships, locomotives, and railroad cars), electrical engineering, machine-tool construction, nonferrous and ferrous metallurgy, food-processing, and the manufacture of textiles, chemicals, ceramics, and petrochemicals (there is a petrochemical combine in Yokkaichi). Tokai is an ancient center for the production of Sheto porcelain.

Agriculture is intensive—about 15 percent of the land is farmed. Most of the area is under rice; other crops include barley, wheat, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. Tokai is also a region of market gardening, melon growing, fruit growing (mainly mandarins; Aichi Prefecture ranks as one of the largest producers in the country), tea plantations, and poultry farming. Other industries include sericulture, pearl cultivation, and fishing. The main ports are Nagoya and its outer harbor, Yokkaichi (freight turnover of 88 million tons in 1974).

More than 20 million tourists visit the Tokai region each year. The area has national parks and hot springs.