Characteristics and Trends of Spatial Forms of City Centers in Japan

• GOTO Yutaka

  Graduate student, University of Tokyo.

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• 日本における都心地域の空間形状の特性と動向
• ニホン ニ オケル トシン チイキ ノ クウカン ケイジョウ ノ トクセイ ト

Abstract

It is necessary to select the exact area of city center to analyze its characteristics. This paper pro-poses the “agglomeration district of city center-type” (AD) as an absolute reference for the city center based on employee density. As this index differs from relative references like the central business district which are used traditionally, it permits comparative analysis between cities throughout Japan. This index also makes it possible to compare commercial and office specialization in city centers. In the definition of this index, the number of employees in the city center corresponds to over 1, 250 per 500-m grid with a total of more than 10, 000. In this paper, 135 areas throughout Japan are selected for analysis, using the 500-m grid data of the Establishment Census of Japan for an area corresponding to the index.<br> In order to examine differences in the characteristics of the ADs, the following four indices were devised. First, “the ratio of commercial employees” illustrates the centricity of cities. Second, “the center agglomeration index” expresses the degree of centralization in terms of the core of employees in the AD. Third, “the ratio of agglomeration district distortion” quantifies the degree of distortion of the spatial form in the AD. Finally, “the separation ratio of office and commercial centers” quantifies the relative degree of separation of office and commercial centers. Using these indices, an attempt is made to classify the ADs based on locations and characteristics to analyze their features comparatively. The ADs in the metropolitan area can be divided into the core city type and the satellite city type, and the ADs in the local city area can also be divided into the prefectural city type and the general city type.<br> As a result, it was found that the ratio of commercial employees can express the characteristics of city centers, and that the centricity is higher with a lower ratio of commercial employees (a higher ratio of office employees). In the three metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, the city centers are specialized in office functions, and those of satellite cities are specialized in commercial functions and are compact in geographic form. Differences in characteristics are detected between city centers in prefectural and general local cities. The ratio of office employees in the former is higher, the average employee density is higher, and the employee density is more geographically even. An attempt was also made to confirm the presence of groups of city centers with similar features using cluster analysis. From comparative time series analysis of 10-year data from 1981 to 1991, the progress of suburbanization in local cities was confirmed.

Journal

• Geographical Review of Japa,. Ser. A, Chirigaku Hyoron

  Geographical Review of Japa,. Ser. A, Chirigaku Hyoron 70 (10), 625-641, 1997

  The Association of Japanese Geographers

Keywords

• city center
• number of employess
• grid data
• spatial form

Details

• CRID: 1390001205424893440
• NII Article ID: 10003715595
• NII Article ID: 110000521480
• NII Book ID: AN1016484X
• DOI: 10.4157/grj1984a.70.10_625
• ISSN: 21851735
• ISSN: 00167444
• NDL BIB ID: 4300554
• Web Site: https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R000000004-I4300554
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/grj1984a/70/10/70_10_625/_pdf
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • NDL
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed