History
More than almost any other prefecture on this site, Chiba is the part of Japan most foreign visitors experience first, whether they realize it or not — Narita International Airport, not anything in Tokyo proper, is where the large majority of international flights actually land.
Chiba and the wider world
Narita’s role as Japan’s main gateway wasn’t uncontroversial: the airport, which opened in 1978 after years of delay, was built on farmland whose owners fought its construction for over a decade in what became known as the Sanrizuka Struggle — one of postwar Japan’s longest and most intense land-rights protest movements, still referenced in Japanese political history. Today the airport that resulted from that fight is the literal front door through which most of the world enters the country.
Chiba’s other, more cheerful global connection is Tokyo Disney Resort — technically located entirely in Urayasu, Chiba, despite carrying “Tokyo” in its name (the operator, Oriental Land Co., reportedly chose the name for international name recognition rather than geographic accuracy). Tokyo DisneySea, opened in 2001, remains unique among the world’s Disney parks and draws visitors from across Asia and beyond specifically because it exists nowhere else.
Neighbors: Chiba and Tokyo
Chiba borders Tokyo across Tokyo Bay and to its east, functioning less as a rival or an underdog (the running joke attached to Saitama and Ibaraki) and more as Tokyo’s practical extension — the place with the room for an international airport, a theme park resort, and the coastline the capital itself doesn’t have.
Getting there and getting around
Narita International Airport is Chiba’s obvious arrival point, connected to central Tokyo by the Narita Express or Keisei Skyliner in 40-60 minutes; Chiba City itself is a short JR ride from Tokyo Station. Kujukuri and Choshi, on the Boso Peninsula, are best reached by local train or car.
