Nagoya

Industrial seaport, seat of Aichi prefecture, and capital of the Chubu region, Honshu island, Japan; population (2000 est) 2,152,200. Situated at the head of Ise Bay, 260 km/162 mi west of Tokyo and 140 km/87 mi east of Osaka, Nagoya is the fourth-largest city of Japan and is a major port. Manufactured products include cars, textiles, and clocks. It has a shogun fortress, built 1610–14 and rebuilt in 1959, and a notable Shinto shrine, Atsuta Jingu.

The three unifiers of Japan, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, were all born in Nagoya or nearby.

Nagoya was founded as a castle town in 1610, and during the latter half of the 19th century the city grew as a centre for the manufacture of textiles and pottery. Heavy industries were established during the 1930s and by World War II Nagoya had become a major centre of aircraft and munitions production. The city was heavily bombed by the US air force in 1945, but was largely rebuilt by the early 1950s. Forty satellite cities can be found within a 40 km/25 mi radius of the city, which also has an underground railway system.