a city and port in Japan, in the central part of the island of Honshu, on Ise Bay, in the Kiso River delta; capital of Aichi Prefecture. Population, 2,066,000 (1973).
After Tokyo and Osaka, Nagoya is the third largest industrial, financial, transportation, commercial, and cultural center in Japan. It is a principal port; in 1970 it handled 68.2 million tons of freight, about half of which was in foreign trade. It is the economic hub of the agricultural and industrial region of Tokai. In the past, Nagoya established itself as a center of light industry, in particular, the textile, food-processing, and china and ceramics industries.
Nagoya produces about 10 percent of Japan’s industrial output. Nagoya and its satellite cities are the center of machine-building enterprises, especially those producing transportation equipment: automobile works and shipbuilding and repair facilities. Textile, precision machine-building, ball-bearing, and electrotechnical industries are located there. There is also ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. Nagoya is Japan’s largest textile center, accounting for about 40 percent of all Japanese textile production. The ceramics and china and furniture industries are also located there. Nagoya has a food-processing industry and printing firms. There is a naval arsenal. It has a university, museums, a botanical garden, and a zoo. There is a subway system in Nagoya.
The principal architectural monuments are the Shinto Atsuta Shrine (beginning of the Common Era; rebuilt in 1955), Nagoya Castle (1612; restored in 1959), Nanatsu (Chofukuji) Temple (735; moved to Nagoya in 1611). The main architectural structures of the 20th century are the Cultural Center (1959–60) and the Postal Savings Bank (late 1950’s), both designed by architect Hideo Kosaka, and Nanzan University (early 1950’s), designed by architect A. Raymond.