Research Trends and Results

Research on how the systematic shrinking of urban
areas in depopulating cities should beUrban Planning Department Urban Disaster Mitigation Division
KIUCHI Nozomu (Ph.D. in Engineering) , HeadUrban Planning Division
SAKATA Tomohiko(Ph.D. in Engineering), Senior Researcher
FUJIOKA Keitaro, Head(Keyword) Depopulation, Urban Structure, Urban Area Restructuring, Systematic Shrinking

1. Switching to Consolidated Urban Structure and2.

Restructuring of Urban AreasResidents

With the ongoing depopulation and tough financial

The followings are assumed as cases that require someaffairs and environment restrictions, one of the recent

measures to shrink urban areas.

challenges in urban policy is to realize a “consolidated(1) Along with the depopulation, the demand for land lots

urban structure”, compact city, as a form of “sustainable

has decreased and vacant land and houses have naturallycity” in provincial regions. 1)

increased.

Many cities have recently been implementing such(2) In the period when the situation above is left as it ismeasures such as revitalization of central commercial

and until the land lots disappear, QOL (the quality of life),areas, the consolidation of city functions into a specificof the residents in the area has dropped and thezone within the areas designated for urbanization, themanagement cost of administrative service has increased.

promotion of public transportation and its network(3) The emigration of residents is intended as a policy

maintenance,in the stages from (1) to (2) in order to control thethecontrol

oflarge-scalecustomer-attracting facility locations, and the prevention

Shrinking of Urban Areas and Relocation ofdisadvantages in the stage (2).

of urban expansion. However, with the exception ofincluding measures to prevent the urban expansion in theBased on this, it is clear that a key point is how tosuburbs, they focus on accepting the migration and theproceed with the relocation of residents followed by thecity functions to consolidated areas, and does not include

depopulation in the area, though there are not so many

any measures to proactively shrink the urban areas bycases that can be referred to in Japan.

relocating the population and the city functions from
non-consolidated areas.

When it comes to agricultural villages, there are quite a

The Department of Urban Research thinks it is necessary

lot of records on the depopulating-village relocation

to map out the measures to proactively promote theproject that intends to move from inconvenient-to-live“systematic shrinking of urban areas” when restructuringmarginal villages within mountains to the foot of them .

the urban areas that are experiencing depopulation,

Oguni-machi

investigating the special characteristics of the cities thatsystematically proceed with the village restructuring as aneed to shrink systematically, the prerequisites to practicemunicipal, through core-village preparation, village

such measures, and the effective procedures.

relocation, and methods for living in mountains duringinYamagata

has

succeeded

tosummer and at the foot during winter. Yet, since theResearch Trends and Resultssocial circumstances have been changed as the roadand Infrastructure Management

development and maintenance level has improved, as in

http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/bcg/siryou/2012report/2012nil

the pavement and the snow clearance, we haven’t heard

im_I.pdf

of any cases that have been worked on in recent years.
And in urban areas, the collective relocation for disasterprevention in progress in such areas affected by thetsunami disaster caused by the Great East Japan
Earthquake, it is relatively easy to reach an agreement on
resident relocation and the public burden in the areas that
doubt their safety.
Yubari City in Hokkaido developed around coal mines
and had a population of 120,000 in its prime but now its
population has dropped to just over 12,000 following theclosure of the mines.

And its growth strategy withpromotion on tourism etc. hit a setback and it is now
facing a financial predicament, as it has been designatedas an organization for fiscal reconstruction in 2010. The
master plan of urban planning of March 2012 is almost
the only case in Japan that specifies how to shrink urban
areas systematically, basically targeting the “compacttown development that reduces the urban managementcosts”. It is intended to restructure and consolidate themunicipal dwelling houses, old houses for coal miners, ineach area at the moment and heads for restructuring
through a gradual construction of sustainable regional
communities by consolidating urban areas in the north tothe south in a long run.

3. Summary
The cases we have investigated so far made us realizethat the improvement of QOL of residents is a major
factor. Currently, we are working out some scenarios
for systematic shrinking intending to build a method
based on them to indicate the advantages anddisadvantages in quantity in the future.

Reference
Yoshiyuki Shibata “Heading for the Consolidated andLow-CO2 City Development”
pp.20 – 21, 2012 Report of National Institute for Land