Kansai, also known as Kinki, is the southern-central region of Honshu, Japan, including Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, and Shiga Prefecture. Centered around the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area, its name means "west of the tollgate", and it became a cultural and historical region whose borders evolved over time. Kansai later evolved into a major industrial region, and its population rose from 9,212,000 in 1920 to 15,515,000 in 1960 and 22,794,173 in 2020. It was also historically a hotbed of yakuza activity, with powerful gangs like the Yamaguchi-gumi originating in Kansai's industrial cities.
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Population in 1836