3.
------------------------------------Shrinking Cities in Japan
日本における都市の縮小

III. SHRINKING CITIES IN JAPAN / 日本における都市の縮小
3

Shrinking Cities in Japan: Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries / 日本における都市の縮小：メガ都市と地方の郊外 | Winfried Flüchter

9

Shrinkage in Japan/ 日本における縮小現象 | Yasuyuki Fujii

13

Population Aging and Japan’s Declining Rural Cities/ 人口の高齢化と廃れてゆく日
本の地方都市 | John W. Traphagan18

Depopulation problem in rural areas as an urban problem: need of urban-rural communication/ 都市問題としての地方の過疎問題：都市・地方間のコミュニケーショ
ンの必要性 | Yutuka Motohashi

23

Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective/ マクロな視点から見た
日本における都市の縮小 | Keiro Hattori

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | SHRINKING CITIES IN JAPAN: BETWEEN MEGALOPOLISES AND RURALPERIPHERIES
Winfried Flüchter   Japanese society is essentially a vital urban society in which it is not really possible to envisage the problem of “shrinking cities”—at least not yet. Even during Japan’s twelve-yearrecession, from which the country is only now beginning to recover, the cities seem too
dynamic for that. Despite the fact that the economic situation has been precarious for so long,or perhaps precisely for that reason, the construction boom has continued unabated not only inthe rural peripheries but in the large cities themselves. On the one hand, this seems surprising;on the other, it is understandable. The Japanese construction lobby, which is headed by powerful players within the system of the so-called Iron Triangle (the interplay of ministerial bureaucracy, politics, and business), have been able to push the expenditures on economic stimulus
programs—that is, deficit spending—to dangerous levels on all geographic scales (national,
regional, and local) and thus still guarantee the profit potential for the Triangle members
through cartel-like bidder agreements (dango) in their own interest.1  
Today’s Japan gives the impression that its planning for urban and regional development,
energy, and transport is still based on predictions of growth. It is indisputable, however, that,
following decades of continuous increase, Japan’s population has now peaked at 127.8 million
inhabitants and that, after a period of stagnation, it will decline to about 100 million inhabitants by 2050, a decrease of 22% (based on the mean estimate). In Germany, the population
shrinkage estimated for the same period, 82.5 million to 75 million (mean estimate), is relatively mild at just 9%. The total fertility rate, for which a value of circa 2.1 is necessary toensure population stability, has fallen in Japan from 2.23 (1967) to 1.28 (2004), on the lowest
end of the world scale, even below the rate of Germany (1.34). Unlike Central Europe, however, the population losses in Japan cannot currently be mitigated by immigration. Japan’s selfimage as an ethnically and socially homogeneous country and the psychological barriers toforeign infiltration are very high, so that its immigration laws are correspondingly restrictive.
The problems are made worse by the fact that Japanese society is aging more rapidly than thatof any other country in the world (life expectancy is 85 for women and 78 for men). In 2004,
the percentage of people over 64 was already 19.3% (in Germany, it was 16.4% in 2000); thefigure predicted for 2050 is 36% (in Germany, 31%). The “shrinking of the population” is a
topical theme in Japan that could potentially exceed the drama of the scenarios in Germany.
In the peripheral rural areas of Japan the problems that will face the whole country in the longterm are already a reality: dramatic declines in population, the extreme aging of society, andproblems of maintaining a sustainable infrastructure. But is that reason enough to conclude
that it is already legitimate to speak of shrinking cities in Japan?
Rapid Urbanization: Population Concentration, Metropolization, Megalopolization
According to statistics, 78.7% of Japan’s population lives in “cities” (shi),2 but that tells us
little about the degree of urbanization, which has increased with breathtaking speed in parallelwith Japan’s great postwar economic successes. The contours of agglomeration are expressed
most clearly in the urbanization of the “densely inhabited districts.” A densely inhabited
district is a registration district with a minimum population density of 4,000 inhabitants per
square kilometer and a minimum population of 5,000 inhabitants. In 1960, 43.7% of Japan’sIII Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | population was living in densely inhabited districts, on just 1.03% of the total area. In 2000,
this figure increased to 65.2% of the population on 3.30% of the total area, with average population density in the densely inhabited districts decreasing from 10,563 (1960) to 6,648 inhabitants per square kilometer (2000). By comparison, Berlin had 3,811 inhabitants per square
kilometer in 2000.   
This extreme form of urbanization is concentrated on Japan’s Pacific Coast: in the narrow sense as metropolization of the three large agglomeration areas Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, butalso in the broader sense as a megalopolization into one large regional belt of cities between
the Tokyo and Osaka regions, extending further west to northern Kyushu (Kitakyushu, Fukuoka), including the inland sea coastal belt. This buildup is particularly strong in the Tokyo
metropolitan region, whose share of the Japanese population increased from 16.7% to 24.2%
from 1960 to 2000. The attraction of the capital region is so strong that since the 1990s thetalk has been of a “one-point concentration on Tokyo” (Tokyo ikkyoku shuchu).   
The population concentration in Japan, as elsewhere, is primarily a consequence of industrialization. The escape from the countryside which began at the turn to the twentieth century was
motivated by an excess of workers in small-farm agriculture, and initially it had many positiveeffects. The personnel reductions in traditional family operations provided impetus for agriculture to improve efficiency and labor productivity and at the same time provided a welcome
source of labor for industry. As industrialization increased during the postwar period, the motivations and effects of domestic migration changed. The more the economic upswing influenced urbanization processes and the attractiveness of cities, the more clearly it changed froma push effect of the rural areas to a pull effect of the city. The concentration of population andthe overdevelopment of agglomeration areas went hand in hand with thinning and underdevelopment in the rural and peripheral regions. This trend, which was particularly strong during
the phase of greatest economic growth, between 1955 and 1973, has clearly weakened since
the mid-1970s, but it has nevertheless continued to worsen the imbalance in regional population distribution.  
Regional and Urban Development in Japan, 1960–2000
Comparison of population developments of prefectures and cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants between 1960 (when the phase of very high economic growth began) and 2000 (themost recent population census) provides essential insights into regional and urban development in Japan (see fig. 1). Whereas the overall population has grown considerably from 94.3
million to 126.9 million, or 34.6%, during those forty years, 12 of 47 prefectures have suffered absolute losses: 3 in the greater Tohoku region and 9 in southwestern Japan. Another 22
prefectures have increased in absolute terms but have remained below the national average.
This applies to large areas of central Japan outside the metropolises, parts of Kyushu, and the
peripheral northeast.
In the large cities of more than 200,000 inhabitants the share of the overall population increased from 33.1% in 1960 to 47.8% in 2000. Nearly all 107 cities of this size were able toincrease their population numbers considerably. Among the few exceptions are the former marine harbors and sites of shipyard industry Sasebo (Nagasaki prefecture) and Kure (Hiroshima
prefecture), both of which experienced a painful process of deindustrialization.

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | Urban Development in Japan’s Periphery, 1960–2000: The Example of Hokkaido
In examining the question of shrinking cities, we turn first to those urban (shi) communities
that are characterized by their peripheral location and smaller population sizes. Hokkaido
suggests itself as such an example for such regional problems. By far the largest prefecture interms of area (and also the country’s second-largest island), comparable to the German federal state of Bavaria in size, its peripheral regions only began to be developed at the end of
the nineteenth century; with a population of 5.7 million inhabitants, it is extremely sparsely
populated by Japanese standards (68 inhabitants per square kilometer). Although Hokkaido’s
population grew by 14% in absolute terms between 1960 and 2000, it is well under the national average of 34.6%. The excess of births over deaths has at least meant that the populationon the island has not fallen as a result of continued migration to the core regions of Japan.   
The growth of Hokkaido’s cities between 1960 and 2000 (see fig. 2) is typical of many otherJapanese prefectures in rural and peripheral areas. One is struck first by the very impressive
population increases in the larger cities, especially the capital of the prefecture, Sapporo.
Sapporo’s large increase from 0.6 to 1.8 million inhabitants (203%) has been exceeded considerably by certain suburban satellites. An extreme case is Kitahiroshima (663%!), a suburb
with plenty of green space, recreational activities, and excellent transportation links, less thantwenty minutes to the Sapporo train station or to the international airport Shin-Chitose. The
community now has 58,000 inhabitants, even though it was only 1968 when its status waschanged from “village” (mura) to “town” (machi) and has been a statistical “city” (shi) only
since 1996, when its population passed the 50,000 mark. Apart from Otaru, traditionally an
important industrial port city whose development has been considerably hampered by bottlenecks of space and deindustrialization, all of the cities in the Sapporo area have grown. Suburbanization is not the only cause; state support for the Doo region (“central Hokkaido”) tobuild up and improve modern infrastructure (including Ishikari, a trade port, and Tomakomai,
an industrial port) has also helped.   
Outside the Sapporo agglomeration, only the larger cities have seen population growth: Obihiro (71.5%), Kitami (67.4%), Asahikawa (67%), Kushiro (27.3%), and Hakodate (18.4%).
It seems obvious why these isolated cities, which provide to extensive surrounding areas andhinterlands, would have increased in population. If we look only at the 1990s, however, it isclear that of these five regional centers only Obihiro and Kitami have increased in population,and only slightly. Although the other three have greater numbers of inhabitants, they have,astonishingly, experienced declines in population, including Asahikawa, which is by far theleading regional center in central Hokkaido. The cause for this decline is the appeal of theprefecture capital. In Hokkaido, one speaks of a “one-point concentration on Sapporo,” inallusion to the “one-point concentration on Tokyo” in Japan as a whole.   
Apart from the cities named above, nearly all of Hokkaido has experienced marked drops
in population. That goes without saying for the villages and small cities, but it was true fornearly all the other cities as well. The situation looks particularly bad in central Hokkaido,
between Sapporo and Asahikawa, a former coal-mining region that became particularly important around 1900 when Hokkaido was being developed, reached the height of its economic
development in the 1960s, and has since undergone a catastrophic decline. It has six cities
whose very existence is at risk as a result of disastrous population declines: Yubari (–86.3%),
Utashinai (–84.4%), Mikasa (–75.9%), Akabira (–71.2%), Ashibetsu (–68.7%), and Bibai(–64.3%). These sad negative figures represent records not only for Hokkaido but for Japan

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | as a whole. They count as “cities” (shi) only in a formal sense; statistically (to say nothing offunctionally), they really have no right to be counted as such. All of them are well below thethreshold of 50,000 inhabitants which growing communities now need to exceed to be counted as cities. Five of these six cities no longer even qualify under the older shi criterion of aminimum of 30,000 residents. Utashinai is the most extreme case, with only 6,000 inhabitants(compared to 38,000 in 1960). It is strange that the former mining communities have nonetheless retained the rank of “city” in the statistics, though it is understandable from the perspective of political correctness: regions that have been exploited economically and ecologicallyshould not have to suffer a degradation in status as well.   
The developments have been most dramatic in Yubari, a very large community at 763 square
kilometers (equivalent to 87% of the area of the state of Berlin). From 107,972 inhabitantsin 1960 it shrank to just 14,791 in 2000, and the declining trend continues (in 2003 there
were just 13,766 residents). Population aging poses an additional problem. The percentageof people over the age of 64 is 33.6%, well above an already high national average of 19.3%.
Unemployment is also high. Only 0.1% of the population continues to work in mining, which
has all but ceased. There are hardly any prospects for alternative jobs. The secondary sector
employs only 24% (production industry 12.8%, construction industry 11%), the primary sector still employs 13.2% (agriculture 12.6%), and the tertiary sector 62.8% (overwhelmingly
simple services; 6.4% are employed in public services).   
All of the former mining “cities” mentioned above have similar structural problems. The
region’s image is about as bad as it could be. The mining companies, one of the crucial players there, did not show much responsibility for their workers even during boom times. Suspiciously large numbers of mining accidents make that clear. After turning profits for decades,
the companies withdrew from the region and left behind an extremely insecure population.
Last but not least, the Japanese state clearly lacked any strong commitment. With a laissezfaire attitude, it stood by and watched as the companies ran their business exploitatively. The
prestige of miners in Germany, especially in the Ruhr Valley, stands in crass contrast to theirpendants in Japan, who tend to be discriminated against. There was no attempt worth mentioning to cushion the effects on miners when the mines were closed. Recultivation of the destroyed landscape is still a long time in coming. Mining settlements built for the long term, likethe “colonies” of the Ruhr Valley, simply do not exist. Rather, miners in Japan, even in Hokkaido, which has very cold winters, are lodged in simple wooden houses that fall quickly intoruin once mining is abandoned. The word “vacant” is misleading in this context.
New Trends in the Metropolises
Since the 1960s many of Japan’s metropolitan regions, above all Tokyo, have developed“housing craters.” This is because housing is being displaced from the city centers by theservice industry. This conversion of downtown to the tertiary sector is familiar in Germany
as well, though the pace is not as dynamic as in Japan, where it has created a strong trend to
suburbanization. It has resulted in a substantial increase in population in the outer regions ofmetropolises, population decline in the city centers, and extremely long commutes.3 Since
the late 1990s this trend has begun to reverse. This is particularly true of Tokyo, where the 23
wards increased by a total of 163,000 inhabitants, or 2%, in the five years from 1995 to 2000.
This positive result is particularly strong in the three central wards: Chuo (+13.5%), Minato(+9.5%), and Chiyoda (+3.6%). This trend to reurbanization has a number of causes: (a) adrop in real estate prices (as a consequence of a long-term recession) which is nationwide but

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | particularly strong in metropolitan cores; (b) state, prefecture, and ward measures to increase
the supply of housing in city centers (motivated by the model of the vertical, compact, multifunctional city); (c) demand from a varied clientele (singles, working couples, and wealthyolder people) for urban housing close to the city center as an alternative to suburbia;4 and (d)a law passed in 2002, limited to a period of ten years, with “special measures for the urban
revitalization of metropolitan regions.”   
Despite the recession, office buildings in Tokyo have continued to be built since the 1990s
at such a rate that the office space in the central municipal districts Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato,
Shibuya, and Shinjuku totals 25 million square feet, a concentration of offices found nowhere
else in the world. This led to intense discussions of the so-called Tokyo 2003 problem: a glutof office space in 2003. It remains to be seen whether the vacancy rate for office space, currently 8%, represents a normal level for long-term planning for the future or is already a cause
for panic. To answer that question it is necessary to distinguish among office types. Experts
presume that the so-called A areas, comprising 13% of the total office space and distinguishedby a location convenient to public transportation, modern infrastructure, and new, earthquake-safe buildings, will be in sufficient demand, especially as they are currently available atrelatively low prices as a result of the recession. So-called B areas, by contrast, which are relatively less central, completed before 1981, and less earthquake-safe, are generally expected
to be more difficult to rent in the future as demand becomes increasingly selective. It is very
likely that the sword of Damocles of high vacancy rates is hanging over this type of building.
The question remains whether the trend to reurbanization of housing means that the phenomenon of vacancy will be a problem for suburbia. There is no doubt that the demand for housing
on the edge of metropolitan regions is decreasing. The “new towns” of the 1960s and 1970s
are stagnating; many have already seen a clear drop in population. Thus far, however, vacancy problems have only affected residences with poor transportation connections, especiallythose remote from train stations. The fact that the population in many new towns is decreasing
is not in itself a reason to speak of vacancy problems, much less of shrinking cities, in urban
peripheral areas. In general, the decline can be explained by generational change: after the arrival of young families thirty years ago has come the departure of the children who have now
matured, with the parents remaining behind, but with more living space.  
Summary  
The Japanese population is a society of large cities, with as many as 21% living in cities withmore than a million inhabitants and 48% in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Urbanism and vitality are typical of large Japanese cities. New challenges such as recession, population decline, and an aging society have not been enough to cause Japanese to question theirpreference for urbanism. There is no public discussion of “shrinking cities,” though there is of“shrinking, thinning regions” (kaso chiiki) with reference to rural peripheral areas.   
Research into urban development between 1960 and 2000 has largely confirmed this finding,as long as the focus is on larger cities and the cities in agglomeration areas are not seen in
isolation but in the context of metropolitan regions and suburbanization processes. A morerefined examination of urban development in rural and peripheral regions, however, showsthat Japan, too, certainly has shrinking cities. “Shrinking” is almost always associated withdeindustrialization and the aging of society. That is particularly true of industrial areas based

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Between Megalopolises and Rural Peripheries

III | on a single sector, especially mining areas, whose populations face serious problems when thefactories close.   
As far as the reurbanization trend in metropolises goes, it is too early to speak of shrinking
cities and vacancy in suburban areas, though vacancy is already a problem on the edges ofcity centers, primarily as a result of a glut of less attractive B offices. When discussing thephenomenon of vacancy in housing in international comparisons, it should be rememberedthat construction of private homes in Japan is not for the long term over many generations;rather, after a single generation (thirty to forty years), buildings are demolished and rebuilt,
with the result that the problem of “vacancy” can be adjusted to demand with greater flexibility.   Despite the rapid decrease in population and the aging of society nationwide, the problemof shrinking cities has so far been subdued in Japan. It is high time, however, that the players
responsible make it clearer than they have thus far that the golden decades of growth and development are gone. The “urban rebuilding” (Stadtumbau) of the future can more reasonably
be called “urban dismantling” (Stadtrückbau). Japan’s affluent society, currently living in very
cramped conditions, could be provided with an improved quality of life. Such urban dismantling would of course run counter to the interests of Japan’s powerful construction lobby. Be
that as it may, the problem of “shrinking” will represent a great challenge in the future forJapan as well.  
Translated from the German by Steven Lindberg  
Notes
1. See the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft research project for 2001–2004 at the Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften derUniversität Duisburg-Essen, under Prof. Dr. Winfried Flüchter and Dr. Thomas Feldhoff: “Japan: Raumwirksame Baulobbytätigkeit im Spannungsfeld zwischen systemischer Stabilität und nachhaltiger Regionalentwicklung,” and the associatedpublication, Thomas Feldhoff, Bau-Lobbyismus in Japan: Institutionelle Grundlagen—Akteursnetzwerke—Raumwirksamkeit (Dortmund, Germany: Dortmunder Vertrieb für Bau- und Planungsliteratur, 2005).
2. From a statistical point of view, the distinction between a “city” (shi), a “town” (machi, cho), and a “village” (mura, son)no longer provides a clear scale. A shi was originally any community that exceeded a threshold value of 30,000 inhabitants.
Currently that value is 50,000. In reality, however, the threshold values for shi do not necessarily say very much about urban
character. For example, even cities that have suffered considerable population loss and now have only a few thousand inhabitants are still included among the shi in the statistics.
3. See Winfried Flüchter, “Megastadt Tokyo: Monster oder Modell?” Geographie und Schule 19, no. 110 (1997): 30–38.
4. See Uta Hohn, “Trend zur Reurbanisierung: Renaissance innerstädtischen Wohnens in Tokyo,” Geographische Rundschau
54 (2002): 4–11.

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinkage in Japan

III | SHRINKAGE IN JAPAN  
Yasuyuki Fujii
In the Edo era, even in the centralized feudal system of the Tokugawa shogunate, each regionin Japan flourished and maintained its original culture and economy. The modernization ofJapan since the Meiji restoration beginning in 1868 brought on a generally continual processof immigration to the cities. Today the population of the Tokyo region (i.e., Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures) accounts for 26% of Japan’s population, an increase
from 14% in 1920, when Japan’s first national census was conducted. In contrast, rural areas
have constantly faced population declines. The population share of nonurban areas (including
towns and villages) was 28% in 2001, slipping from 35% in 1970. This trend is expected tocontinue. In as early as two years, Japan’s population will start to decline and — as is wellknown — then shrink very rapidly in the years to follow.   
Local governments in Japan had made their plans on the assumption of continuously expanding socioeconomic factors. A common joke among Japanese city planning professionals isthat the total sum of the population projections of the 3,400 municipalities nationwide comesto an enormous figure far larger than Japan’s actual population of 127 million. Japanese local
governments now need to accept depopulation and create strategies to deal with it.  
Among the large cities in Japan, there are no counterparts of, for example, Liverpool or Detroit, which have seen sharp falls in population figures. The city of Osaka (population 2,620,000
in 2002) is perhaps the nearest counterpart. After reaching its post–Second World War peakof 3,160,000 in 1965, the population of Osaka continued to decrease until 1995 (population
2,600,000). During the same period, the population of the Osaka region even increased a little.
If one understands shrinkage as a decline in the economy, society, and culture as well as depopulation, then Osaka may well be a typical shrinking city. Osaka is a strong rival to Tokyo, but
in the age of the global economy the number-one city, namely, Tokyo, has been expanding,while other cities, including number two, shrink. In the United Kingdom the situation with
London and its relationship to the other cities is somewhat similar, whereas in Germany thesituation is quite different. Many Osaka-based corporations have moved their important headquarter functions to Tokyo over the last two decades. Although still maintaining its uniquecharacteristics and culture, Osaka’s role as a vigorous commercial city is fading away.   
In general, port cities remotely located from major metropolises are stagnating. The relative
importance of the port faded when airfreight became dominant in business. In addition, theimportance of major international ports has increased relative to domestic ports. Examples ofshrinking port cities include Nagasaki of Kyushu and Hakodate of Hokkaido. These two cities
happened to be among the five ports, along with Kobe, Yokohama, and Niigata, which wereopened to the world in 1858 after the termination of Japan’s national seclusion policy. Nagasaki (population 423,000 in 2000, down from its peak of 449,000 in 1985) was the eighthlargest city in Japan in 1920, Hakodate (population 288,000 in 2000, down from its peak of
320,000 in 1980) was the tenth-largest. In 1920, Fukuoka and Sapporo, today cities of morethan a million, were much smaller than Nagasaki and Hakodate. Nagasaki is now ranked 37th,and Hakodate has been set back to 71st. As the sharp plunges in their rankings reveal, therelative importance of these cities is dwindling. Today Nagasaki and Hakodate are no longer
primary cities in their respective regions. In Kyushu, Fukuoka (population 1,341,000) isIII Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinkage in Japan

III | 10now the regional core city; in Hokkaido, Sapporo (population 1,822,000) plays this role. The
populations of Fukuoka and Sapporo, both of which have their economic base in the service
industry and are transportation hubs in their regions, are expected to grow further.   
The manufacturing cities are losing their populations and economic base. Both regional cities
and metropolitan industrial cities have been affected in this respect. Examples of regional cities are Kitakyushu in Fukuoka prefecture (population 1,011,000; heavy industries), Sasebo in
Nagasaki prefecture (population 241,000; shipbuilding), Hitachi in Ibaraki prefecture (population 193,000; electronics), and Muroran of Hokkaido (population 103,000; steel). Such cities
tend to be “company towns,” which means that they are vulnerable to the performance of a
specific industry or company. In the near future, Kitakyushu may slip below the one-million
threshold, making it the first “former million city” in Japan.
Examples of metropolitan industrial cities are Higashi-Osaka in Osaka prefecture (population 515,000; small-scale industry) and Amagasaki in Hyogo prefecture (population 466,000;
heavy and small-scale industries), both in the Osaka region. These two satellite cities of Osaka
are blue-collar cities with many dense and substandard residential areas developed during
Japan’s rapid period of urban immigration. The Tokyo region, on the other hand, has few
cities with declining populations because it has been growing constantly. Except for Muroran,
which lost about 30% of its population over the last two decades, the decrease in the populations of the industrial cities mentioned above has been marginal, between the range of 1% to
11% over a twenty-year period.   
In Japan, there are 220 cities (i.e., not towns or villages) with populations of fewer than
50,000 inhabitants. The total population of these small cities has in fact decreased in thefive years from 1994 to 1999. The greatest percentage decrease for the five-year period was
Yuubari (population 15,000), with a 2.4% population loss, followed by Utashinai (population
6,000) and Mikasa (population 14,000). All three of these cities happen to be former coalmining areas in Hokkaido. Moreover, small cities become sucked up by the larger regional
cities. In the coming period of drastic depopulation, many of the cities with around 50,000 to
100,000 inhabitants will undergo severe depopulation and become very old societies.   
Deprivation is severe in rural areas. Wealth has become too concentrated in urban areas; inonly nine prefectures does the per capita gross domestic product exceed the national average,
meaning that per capita gross domestic product is below the average for 38 prefectures. The
figure for Tokyo, which is 40% higher than the national average, is twice as large as that of
the weakest region, Okinawa.   
Thanks to efficient railway networks and employers’ full compensation of commuting costs,
major Japanese metropolises have expanded considerably. A work commute of more than
one hour in a packed train is typical for large cities in Japan. The size of Tokyo’s four central
wards is close to that of Manhattan, but these four wards are populated by 520,000 people,
whereas in Manhattan the figure is 1,490,000. Land is a basic commodity, but land prices inJapan skyrocketed from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Since then, land prices have fallenfrom their peak by half, sometimes more. Nowadays people in large Japanese cities can afford
to look for a place to live in the city. In 2000, 54% of condominiums were developed within
a 20-kilometer radius from the center of the Tokyo region; this figure was 62% for the Osaka
region. In 1991, these figures were 30% and 32%, respectively.

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinkage in Japan

III | 11

Shrinkage occurs in Japanese metropolises in a rather piecemeal fashion, but in the suburbsof large metropolises shrinkage is inescapable, perhaps because of the conditions describedabove. Suburbs with poor transportation connections are shrinking in general. As for types of communities, the new towns and communities of large public estates also have been
shrinking. For example, Senri New Town in Osaka, which is 1,160 hectares in size, is one ofJapan’s earliest and largest satellite cities, located 10 kilometers north of Osaka’s city center.
The population reached nearly 130,000 in 1975, ten years after construction had begun, but
has now dropped to 94,000. Senri’s older population, with 21% of the inhabitants 65 years
and over, is much larger than that of Osaka prefecture, with 16%. Conditions are not muchdifferent in the planned communities in Tokyo. Tama New Town is located 30 kilometers westof Tokyo’s city center and is 2,980 hectares in size. The new town is inhabited by 180,000
people, falling considerably short of the planned 300,000 residents. The core municipality, Tama, lost 1.5% of its population in the period 1995–2000. Common features of thesecommunities are obsolete housing estates and homogeneity. Both the detached and attachedhouses, particularly those built early on, are rather monotonous. The homogeneous populationof small nuclear families is getting older. The problems are not yet serious, but in the future
derelict land and abandoned houses may become more common in the metropolitan suburbs.
In addition, most of the Japanese satellite towns, unlike their British counterparts, are “bedtowns” without enough employment.   
The “super suburbs” 50 to 100 kilometers from Tokyo’s city center are also shrinking. The
areas almost became a part of Greater Tokyo in the heyday of urban immigration and the bubble economy. But today such areas are disconnected from Tokyo and are having a hard time
redefining their identities.
Japan may be the only global power with almost no foreign immigrants residing in the innercity areas. In Tokyo, registered foreign residents account for only 2.7% of the population, andethnic communities virtually do not exist. In contrast to other international cities such as New
York, London, and Paris, Tokyo has a very small foreign labor force. In large Western cities,
the inner-city areas are generally inhabited by minorities, whereas affluent people reside in thesuburbs, leading to problems of social division. In Japan, the price of residential real estate
becomes higher the closer one gets to the city center. Until very recently, hollowing out wasa problem in the central districts of large metropolises, but now people are returning to theseareas.   
Only in rare cases has a regional city of import undergone widespread depopulation. In individual zones within regional cities, however, decline has occurred in some city centers. Manymerchants have closed down their businesses, leaving many shops — sometimes more thanhalf — with their shutters down on a once bustling strip in the middle of the city. Such streets
are known as “shutter streets.” Some landowners operate temporary parking lots after they
demolish their buildings in the city center. Nonetheless, the proprietors of closed shops are far
from poor, even if they are not profiting from their properties in the city center. They live inspacious suburban houses and sometimes run a business on a suburban street or lease a store
in one of the big suburban shopping centers which belong to national franchises.  
In addition to depopulation, other prominent issues are aging in the central districts of regional cities and the loss of vitality in these communities. Land prices in the central districts ofregional cities have also become cheaper. Unlike in large cities, however, people in regional
cities do not return to the central district when market demand is weak. Various policies haveIII Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinkage in Japan

III | 12been implemented in order to promote the city centers of regional cities and revitalize thecommunities. Unfortunately, these measures have met with limited success.   
The promotion of a compact city can be a desirable concept for both metropolises and nonmetropolises. In the case of metropolises, the contraction of urban space is a current trend.
For that reason, the agenda must include questions of how to realize sustainable shrinkage
in the suburbs and how to regenerate urban centers and adjoining inner-city areas in order toaccommodate more residents as well as promote a diversity of people. In the case of non-metropolises, the issues of an aging society and of the urban form must be addressed. The central
areas need to be revitalized and need to include related services for the elderly. At the sametime, sprawling development on the urban fringes should be curtailed.   
The good news for local regions is that recently younger persons have been choosing to staywhere they were born and brought up instead of studying and getting a job in large metropolises such as Tokyo and Osaka. This phenomenon can be seen as a by-product of the low birthrate. In a low birthrate society, the only son or daughter tends to stay within a short distancefrom his or her parents. In addition, the tradition of lifelong employment in a large company
headquartered in Tokyo or Osaka is gradually becoming less popular among university graduates. Nowadays many students hope to take part in venture businesses. Since the enactment ofa law on nonprofits in 1998, nonprofit community-based activities have been facilitated bothat the local regional level and in large cities.  
The era of depopulation and aging tended to be discussed in Japan in a rather pessimistic tone,
but lately people have begun to realize that there might be ways to live better lives in such asociety. A key to realizing sustainability may be self-sufficiency.

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Population Aging and Japan‘s Declining Rural Cities

III | 13

POPULATION AGING AND JAPAN’S DECLINING RURAL CITIESJohn W. Traphagan
With a combination of increased longevity and very low total fertility rate (TFR), Japan’s population has aged more rapidly than any other country in the world. Processes of demographic
change have led to a redistribution of the age structure of the Japanese population such that
as of 2002 people over the age of 64 represent a larger proportion of the population (18.5%)
than those between the ages of 0 and 14 (14.2%). Along with an older age structure has comesignificant change in attitudes about how elder care should be provided, the responsibilitiesof the younger generation towards the older generation in terms of providing care and coresidence, and expectations about the extent to which female relatives should be expected toprovide care. Although these changes have influenced Japanese society in general, they have
had a particularly profound effect in  rural areas, where the general aging of the population isaccompanied by out-migration of young people to urban centers such as Tokyo, in search of
education and work.  
At the center of the problem of population aging in Japan is the family. Like other East Asiansocieties that have been heavily influenced by the strong emphasis on filial piety associatedwith the Confucian philosophical tradition, Japanese have historically viewed co-residencewith parents as a moral obligation of at least one child (in Japan this has normally been the eldest son), and a corresponding focus on provision of care to frail elderly by a family member.  
However, in the post World War II era, some of these assumptions have come to be challenged as Japan has become increasingly urbanized and mobile, and as interpretations of values
in other societies (particularly the U.S.) have influenced how Japanese think about individualand collective roles in society.  
Demographic Change and the Japanese Family
Prior to the end of the World War II, the Japanese family structure adhered to a legally mandated form known as the ie. The ie (stem family) structure is a lineal family arrangement inwhich descent and inheritance among both the main family (stem) and branches from thatmain family are traced to a single ancestor. This structure involves considerably more than asystem for reckoning descent and inheritance. For Japanese, the stem family represents an historically defined center of social continuity that includes living and dead relatives as well as
property—the term ie can refer not only to the family, but to a physical house or to the combination of the house and its residents (Traphagan 2004).
Succession within the stem family is normally patrilineal; the eldest son (preferably) or another son, in the event that the eldest is unable or unwilling to succeed, is automatically expected to take on the role of headship of the household and in merchant and farm families, thefamily business or farm. It is common in contemporary Japan for a daughter to take on thisrole, either independently or by bringing in an adoptive husband who will become the head ofhousehold and/or business and take his wife’s family name. Regardless of which child becomes successor, it is that child who has normally been expected to co-reside with his parents
and provide care, including long term nursing care, should the need arise.
Although eliminated as a legal structure during the Occupation following World War II, the ie
remains a key conceptual frame through which Japanese think about family relationships

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Population Aging and Japan‘s Declining Rural Cities

III | 14

(Knight and Traphagan 2003:7). Responsibilities for parental care and notions about residence
are usually filtered through the lens of the ie and people continue to think about parental care
responsibilities in terms of child birth order—even if the emphasis on the eldest male has relaxed as more people have come to prefer that care be provided by a daughter as opposed to adaughter-in-law (the person who usually provides the care when parents reside with their son).  
Indeed, Japanese anthropologist Chie Nakane (1967:5) described this family system as providing a form of social insurance for the elderly, and this description—even with significant
changes in family structure—continues to shape the manner in which Japanese think aboutelder care.
These changes include a general trend toward nuclear family structure (known as kaku kazoku) of the family.  In white-collar families, children, including the one who is deemed successor, may move away from parents in pursuit of education and work and may be unable toprovide elder care. Japanese have come to a variety of solutions to this problem, including delayed co-residence in which the successor child lives apart from his parents while raising his
own children and then returns to co-reside with them when he retires. This pattern has become
sufficiently common that it has its own name—kaigo U-tân or “nursing-care U-turn”—andin 1998 the Japanese television network NHK produced a special on the nursing-care U-turn
phenomenon, focusing on the lives of businessmen who had given up their careers to return
to be close to their parents and provide care. NHK cites government estimates that 100,000
people per year quite work in order to provide care.
Other solutions to the problem of providing elder care have focused on social services such as
home-helpers and day care for the elderly and these services have been expanding following
Japan’s inauguration of a national long-term care insurance program in 2000. This program,which is funded by premiums that all Japanese are required to pay from the age of 40 andco-payments by care recipients, provides comprehensive long-term care managed throughcase workers including both in-home and institutional forms of care. Even with these changes,
Japanese continue to think about elder care in terms of the family. While government services
may be a necessity for many elderly, particularly among the elderly there remains a preference
for spending the elder years residing with children.  
Although there has been a general trend among older people to indicate a preference forliving independently or only with a spouse (see Figure 1), it is often difficult to interpret theresults of opinion surveys about residence, or even to interpret the nature of Japanese residence patterns. Living independently of children may not necessarily mean living apart fromthem.  One of the most interesting developments during the 1990’s in Japan was the growth inmulti-family housing designed to allow a lone elder or elder couple to live on the first floor ofa building and an adult child to live on the second floor with his or her nuclear family (Brown
2003). The two floors of the building have separate bathing and kitchen facilities and living
quarters, but both “nuclear families” occupy the same building. This provides security for theelders and the opportunity for the younger generations to have regular interaction with thegrandparents. In essence, the elder generation is living independently, but has immediate help
if the need arises. This approach also allows for both generations to maintain privacy.  
The Changing Japanese Countryside
While population aging has influenced the manner in which Japanese think about family andliving arrangements, other demographic trends have also had an impact on the experience ofIII Shrinking Cities in Japan | Population Aging and Japan‘s Declining Rural Cities

III | 15

aging. Perhaps most notable among these is the outflow of population from rural areas. Figure
2 shows net migration in some rural prefectures in Japan as compared to the major metropolisof Tokyo and the cities of Chiba and Fukuoka. It is immediately obvious that net migrationis negative for rural prefectures such as Iwate and Akita, a pattern common throughout ruralparts of Japan and one that has been consistent for several decades. By contrast Tokyo is theprimary draw for people, particularly young people, in search of employment and education.  
Although many eventually leave Tokyo—often to neighboring Chiba—the pattern of migration into the cities is clear in the case of Tokyo and is replicated in regions with large cities suchas Fukuoka in Kyushu and Sendai in the north.
  The out-migration of younger people in rural areas has left behind towns and cities that areheavily populated by elders. It is now common for rural towns and cities to have populations in which well over 20% of the population is over the age of 65 and it is not uncommon
for fairly remote rural towns to have more than 30% over 65.  For example, as of 2003 thetown of Mizusawa, located in Iwate Prefecture (a few hundred kilometers north of Tokyo),has about 22% of the population over the age of 65. This, however, consideration only of theaggregate population structure of the city, obfuscates a more complex and extreme problem ata smaller community level. Of the 110 neighborhoods in the city, 36 have more than 30% over
65 and three have over 40% of the population over 65. One neighborhood has 43.6% of its
population over 65 and there is one district, consisting of eight neighborhoods, in which every
neighborhood has more than 30% of its population over 65 and the entire district is 33.6%
over 65. In this same neighborhood, 50% of the population is between 15 and 64 and only
6.4% is between the ages of zero and 14. In one neighborhood, over 70% of the population
is between 15 and 64 and only 4.7% is between zero and 14 (25.1% over 6; Source: City ofMizusawa, Mizusawa, Japan).1   
These statistics point not only to the present aging of the population in rural citites such as
Mizusawa, but also provide a predictor of the future. As the current population of middle-aged
people ages, rural Japan will experience an increasing number of communities in which there
are virtually no children. In response to this, the Japanese government has instituted a variety of pro-natalist policies intended to encourage people to have more children. For example,
most Japanese municipalities will provide a one-time payment upon the birth of a child. In
the community where I have spent time conducting research, this amounted to approximately $3,000, which was sufficient to cover all of the costs associated with the birth of a child,including the hospital stay. In addition, this particular community provides monthly payments
to be used for purchasing diapers and formula for couples with newborn infants. It is important to recognize that Japan is not alone in Asia in terms of facing this problem. Other countries, such as Korea and Singapore have considered or started providing payments to families
that have children, a result of the generally dropping total fertility rate in Asia (Korea’s TFR
currently stands about 1.17, even lower than Japan’s rate of 1.3).  
Not only are demographic trends affecting rural cities and towns, but changing patterns ofconsumption also influence the characteristics of cities and towns throughout Japan. Although
the trend towards personal car ownership has been going on for some time in Japan (Plath
1990), throughout the 1990’s rural Japan, in particular, has become increasingly a “car culture.” Car ownership is now common in suburban areas outside of Japanese cities such as
Tokyo, but most people continue to rely upon the extensive network of subways and trains inmetropolitan areas like Tokyo and Osaka. In rural Japan, however, car ownership has becomea necessity of life. For people living in areas outside of rural downtowns, it has always been

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Population Aging and Japan‘s Declining Rural Cities

III | 16difficult to do grocery and other shopping. In recent years, as small towns and cities haveattempted to reduce congestion among the small streets of their downtown areas, businesses
have been encouraged by local governments to locate, or relocate, along bypass routes built
to circumvent the downtowns.  At the same time, the poor Japanese economy of the 1990’s
and early 21st Century have led to an explosion of chain discount stores at which one canpurchase clothing, groceries, pharmaceuticals or other products.   
This combination of factors has led to a decline of downtown areas, to the extent that in sometowns most of the stores have closed. In the center of Mizusawa, for example, a quick surveyof the main street in front of the train station showed that 17 stores in an area approximately
75 km in length, had closed or moved to the bypass outside of the downtown area. In 1998,
a large department store known as Daiei (a national chain) closed its doors and the 5-story
building it occupied was torn down, to be replaced by a new office for a bank that had been
located on another part of the main street. In the summer of 2004, the other major department
store along the main street in Mizusawa, JUSCO, will close its doors in order to move to a
new building being constructed along the bypass in a neighboring town. This will remove
the last department store capable of drawing shoppers who may then purchase goods at thesmaller stores that occupy the same building along with JUSCO. In the neighboring town ofKanegasaki, both of the main grocery stores in the center of town closed within three years of
the opening of a discount grocery store along the bypass outside of that town.
These changes make it much easier for people to drive to do their shopping.  Unlike the narrow streets of downtown areas, the large parking lots at these new stores along bypass routes
facilitate shopping via automobile for those who own cars. However, this pattern has negatively influenced the lives of older people, many of whom do not drive. In the past, the elderly
could walk or ride a bicycle to nearby locally owned stores to purchase the goods they needed; today, they normally have to hire a taxi to take them to the store. For people on a fixedincome, regular taxi rides can become a significant drain on financial resources—a short taxi
ride from the downtown area to the grocery store along the bypass in Kanegasaki, for example, can cost ¥1,500 each way. Although there are trucks that bring produce, meat, and fish toneighborhoods so that people can purchase what they need, many elderly complain that the
food is not as fresh as what one can find at a grocery store and, thus, they are not happy withthese services.
The Experience of Aging in JapanThe rapid change which Japan has experienced since the end of World War II, and particularly
since the end of the bubble economy of the 1980s, has had a significant influence on the elderly. As young people have moved to major metropolitan areas, the elderly have been effectively left behind in the countryside. Social services provided through the national long-termcare insurance program, are designed to help elders who are living alone or with an elderly
spouse; disabled elderly, in particular, can make use of home helper services for grocery andother shopping, although there are insufficient helpers to visit more than once or twice a week.
And home helpers also help elders with activities of daily living such as bathing and housecleaning.  
Nonetheless, the demographic trends of the latter 20th Century, and the corresponding shift toa car-centered way of purchasing goods in rural areas, have made life for the elderly in many
Japanese towns and cities difficult. Over the next few years, we will see increased aging ofIII Shrinking Cities in Japan | Population Aging and Japan‘s Declining Rural Cities

III | 17

the population of Japan, a process that will be magnified in rural areas, leaving neighborhoods(and in very remote areas whole towns) with few young people. Care provision for these elders will be difficult and, although many of these new elders will be able to drive, with increasing age and frailty, the simple activities of daily life such as going to a grocery store a few
kilometers from one’s home will become a significant chore. As Japan’s rural cities decline(and shrink), the elderly will face new and increasingly difficult challenges that will requirecontinued innovations in public and private systems of social support for the elderly.
Figure 1. Changing attitudes about co-residence among older
Japanese
35.00%
1999
1993

30.00%

25.00%

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00%
Child

SpouseOther family
memberAlone

Nursing home

FriendOther/noresponse

Source: Both surveys were conducted among a national sample of voters.  The 1999 survey had a sample size of 2,184 andthe 1993 survey had a sample size of 2,261.  The 1999 survey was conducted by the Asahi Shimbun the 1993 survey was
conducted by the NHK Broadcasting.  Data were provided by the JPOLL database at The Roper Center, University of Connecticut [distributor], Storrs, Connecticut, USA.

Notes:
1. Source: City of Mizusawa, Mizusawa, Japan.
References Cited
Knight, John and John W. Traphagan. 2003. “The Study of the Family in Japan: Integrating Anthropological and Demographic Approaches.” In John W. Traphagan and John Knight (eds.), Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging
Society.  Albany: State University of New York Press,  Pp.  3 – 23.
Brown, Naomi. 2003. “Under One Roof: The Evolving Story of Three Generation Housing in Japan.” In John W. Traphagan
and John Knight (eds.), Demographic Change and the Family in Japan’s Aging Society.  Albany: State University of New
York Press,  Pp.  53-72.
Nakane, Chie.  1967.  Kinship and Economic Organization in Rural Japan.  New York: Humanities Press.  
Plath, David W. 1990. “My Car-isma: Motorizing the Showa Self.” Deadalus 119(3): 226 – 245. Traphagan, John W.
2004. The Practice of Concern: Ritual, Well-Being, and Aging in Rural Japan. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
Traphagan, J. W. and L. K. Brown. 2002. Fast Food and Intergenerational Commensality in Japan: New Styles and Old
Patterns.  Ethnology 41(2): 119-134.

Journal of Healthy Cities Research Vol.1 No.1, June 2000
III | 18

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | 日本における縮小現象

都市問題としての過疎問題と urban-rural communication の必要性について
本橋豊

秋田大学医学部公衆衛生学講座

Depopulation problem in rural areas as an urban problem:
need of urban-rural communication
Yutaka MOTOHASHI
Department of Public Health, Akita University School of Medicine, Akita
Abstract
Depopulation problem in rural areas is regarded as an urban problem because
urbanization affects socioeconomic problems in rural areas both directly and indirectly. In this brief
review, medical and welfare services of the community elderly were analyzed and considered. First,
the system of 24-hour continued welfare home care services in T town in Akita Prefecture wasintroduced as a successful model for elevation of community activity in a depopulated rural area.
A focus group interview study as well as demographic study revealed that the system of welfare
home care services could be adapted to the other communities by an appropriate experience transfer.
Secondly, the effect of socioeconomic variables on resources of medical and welfare services indepopulated rural areas was analyzed by factor analysis using 16 indicators of 69 communities in
Akita Prefecture. The result showed that welfare indicators of number of home-helper incommunities was related to the ratio of public loan in a community, suggesting the enlargement ofwelfare resources for the elderly is dependent upon how policy decision makers give priority to
welfare policy. Last, the need of urban-rural communication in the depopulation problem wasconsidered from three different viewpoints; life-style related diseases in rural areas, the possibility ofmulti-media technology in medical and welfare services for the elderly in rural areas, and healthpromotion activities in rural areas.
１．過疎地域における高齢者の医療福祉サービス−秋田県Ｔ町の事例
都市問題としての過疎問題を考える具体例として、高齢者の医療福祉サービスを取り上げる。過疎地域における人口高齢化の問題は、農林漁業中心の産業構造、低所得に起因す
る出稼ぎに代表される労働力人口の流出、生産年齢人口減少に起因する少子化の進行など
が構造的原因として考えられる。すなわち、過疎地域における人口高齢化は都市化の進行と表裏一体の関係にあるものであり、都市問題の一つと認識すべき問題である。社会保障制度の一連の制度改革の中で高齢者の医療福祉問題は先進諸国において重要な位置を占めている。我が国においては、医療制度・年金制度改革とともに、公的介護保険制度の始動が焦眉の問題として取り組まれており、高齢者の医療福祉サービスの再編が全国の市町村で行われている。全国の市町村の置かれている実状は財政面や基盤整備状況において異なり、ただちにすべての市町村が同じ条件で高齢者医療福祉サービスを提供できる状況ではないことは明らかである。とくに「過疎」という要因が小規模町村の医療福祉サービス基盤に影響を与えていることは容易に想像できる。
秋田県には６９市町村があり、財政面・社会基盤整備状況に較差がある。本項では秋田
県の中で高齢者福祉サービスが良く機能していることで知られているＴ町の実状を報告し、過疎地域における高齢者の医療福祉サービスの基盤整備に及ぼす都市化要因について考察することにする。

III | 19

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | 日本における縮小現象

秋田県Ｔ町は秋田県北部に位置する人口約２万３千人の町である。人口密度は 70.7 人／
ｋｍ２であり、秋田県の中ではだいたい中位である。主たる産業は農業であり、65 歳以上の高齢者（高齢化率、1996 年）は 21.4％である。表１に県都である秋田市と比較したＴ町の都市化指標と医療福祉指標を示した。Ｔ町は典型的な過疎地域とは言えないまでも、過疎化の進んだ地域であるということができる。Ｔ町は２４時間体制のホームヘルプサービスの先進地域ということで全国的に知られており、全国からの視察が絶えない。表１に見ると分かるように、ホームヘルパー数、ショートステイ利用回数、訪問介護利用回数は秋田市と比べてＴ町では高い数値となっている。このことはＴ町の高齢者福祉サービスが、とくに在宅サービスを中心に充実していることを裏付けている。しかし、同時に老人保健施設、特別養護老人ホーム定員数は秋田市に比べて低いことから、高齢者保健福祉の施設サービスの基盤整備状況は秋田市と比べて未整備である。また、国民健康保険診療費、医師数も秋田市に比べて低く、医療サービスの提供は都市部に比べて少ない。これらのことか
ら、Ｔ町では高齢者の在宅福祉サービスは充実しているが、施設福祉サービス及び医療サービスの整備は今後の課題であることがわかる。現在Ｔ町では地域密着型のケアタウン計
画を実施しており、この中で老人保健施設、デイサービスセンターの建設を進めて、施設
サービスの充実を図ろうとしている。
Ｔ町が福祉の町づくりを推進することになった経緯はすでに報告があるが、住民の福祉に対するニーズを把握した上での政治的リーダーシップと住民参加型の福祉推進が成功の鍵となった。過疎地域における高齢化の進展に伴う住民のニーズの高まり、医療施設の設置や医師の確保が基礎自治体単独ではなかなか難しいために、高齢者対策として医療モデルを採用せず福祉モデルで対応したことが、結果としてＴ町を在宅福祉の先進地域として際だたせることになった。人口規模が２万人程度の地域であることから、在宅福祉サービ
スで地域全体の高齢者福祉ニーズをある程度カバーできたことも成功の重要な要因であると考えられる。
われわれはフォーカスグループインタビューの手法を用いて、Ｔ町の在宅福祉サービス担
当者（ホームヘルパー）を対象に、Ｔ町の高齢者福祉サービスの現状と問題点についての評価を調査した。詳細は学術誌に報告する予定であるが、次のような点が明らかになった。
すなわち、（１）在宅福祉サービス担当者は現在の在宅福祉サービスを肯定的に評価しており、このようなシステムは他の市町村でも実施可能であると考えている、（２）ただし、Ｔ町の在宅福祉サービスの実現には過疎地域である（人口が少ない、夜間に鍵をかける習慣がないなど）という特殊性も関与していることは否定できない、という結果が得られた。
本研究結果にもあるとおり、２４時間の在宅介護事業の実施にあたっては、夜間訪問の受け入れが容易であること、近隣の理解が得られることが重要である。過疎地域においては高層居住や夜間の犯罪増加や近隣同志の没交渉といった都市特有のコミュニティー問題がなく、訪問介護事業の実施に有利であると考えられる。逆に人口規模の大きな都市においてはこれらの問題が解決すべき課題として残されてくると思われる。
表１．秋田市とＴ町の都市化指標と医療福祉指標（平成７・８年度のデータ）
指標
総人口
人口密度
年少人口
生産年齢人口
老年人口
出生率
死亡率
高齢者のいる世帯割合
財政力

秋田市
311948
678.7
16.1
69.4
14.5
9.1
6.9
27
0.744

56

Ｔ町
23034
70.7
14.9
63.7
21.4
8.2
11.2
46.7
0.32

備考
人
人／km2
％
％
％
人口千人あたり、人
人口千人あたり、人％III | 20

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | 日本における縮小現象

地方債現在高倍率
公債率
経常収支比率
市町村税収入額
水道普及率
生活保護率
ホームヘルパー数
特別養護老人ホーム数
同定員数
老人保健施設数
同定員数
ショートステイ利用状況
同100人あたり年間利用回数
デイサービス利用状況
同100人あたり年間利用回数
訪問介護利用回数
同100人あたり年間利用回数
国保診療費
医師数

1.84
15.1
132.9
78.8
98.9
9.7
4.24
58
3517
33
3312
94551
38.9
256575
105.6
265119
109.1
312.2
304.6

1.01
10.5
81.7
77.5
88.2
7.8
10
1
107
0
0
3830
75.6
1173
23.2
10878
214.8
261.2
147.3

％
％
％

人
人

２．過疎地域における医療福祉サービスの基盤整備に影響を与える諸因子について過疎地域における医療福祉サービスの基盤整備状況に人口の高齢化、都市化がどのような影響を与えているかを明らかにする目的で、官庁統計資料から、秋田県の６９市町村の都市化と関連する社会経済指標・高齢化指標・医療福祉関連指標を１６変数を選び、分析を行った。都市化と関連する社会経済指標は、第一次産業就業者比率、第三次産業就業者比率、人口一人当たり市町村民所得、他市町村で従業する就業者割合、付加価値生産性、
財政力指数、地方債現在高倍率、公債比率であった。高齢化指標は、高齢者のいる世帯割
合、高齢単身世帯割合であった。医療福祉関連指標としては、医師数（人口１０万人あたり）、一人当たり老人医療費（入院）、一人当たり老人医療費（入院外）、国民健康保険診療費（被保険者一人当たり）、ホームヘルパー数（６５歳以上人口千人当たり）、生活保護法による保護率（人口千人当たり）であった。以上の１６指標を用いて、因子分析を行い（主成分分析による因子抽出法）、バリマックス回転後の因子負荷量を求め、因子構造を検討した。解析には SPSS ver.7.5 を用いた。
因子分析結果をまとめたものを表２に示した。固有値１以上で抽出された因子は合計５つであった。各因子の以下のように解釈された。第１因子は都市化に関する因子、第２因子は所得に関する因子、第３因子は高齢者医療に関する因子、第４因子は生活自立の困難さに関する因子、第５因子は市町村の負の財政状態に関する因子である。第５因子の公債費比率および地方債現在高倍率は当該市町村の過疎対策事業や地域総合整備事業の財源を含んでいるため、過疎化対策の因子を含むものとも解釈される。
医師数という医療の人的資源については都市化と密接に関連していることが分かった。
一方、福祉関連指標であるホームヘルパー数は市町村の負債状態と関連し、生活保護率は
生活自立の困難さと関連していた。いずれの福祉指標も都市化との関連よりは市町村の財
政政策経費と関連していたが、高齢化指標との関連性は希薄であった。図１には、秋田県におけるホームヘルパー数と公債費比率の散布図を示した。ホームヘルパー数が６５歳以上人口千人あたり５人を越えると、両者に明らかな相関が認められるが、ホームヘルパー
数が５人以下の市町村では両者の相関は認められない。これはホームヘルパー数の整備が現在進行中であり、市町村間の較差が福祉のニーズの実際を反映しておらず、現在の段階
では市町村の福祉政策との関連の方が強いことを示している。ホームヘルパー数の増員を

57

III | 21

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | 日本における縮小現象

過疎化対策との関連で積極的に推進していると思われる少数の市町村においては、ホーム
ヘルパー数と公債費比率が強い関連性を示しており、自治体の政策立案に依存していることを示唆している。
表２．秋田県６９市町村の都市化と関連する社会経済指標・高齢化指標・医療福祉関連指標の因子分析結果の要約。バリマックス回転後の成分行列に基づき抽出された５つの因子の解釈。下線を付した変数は係数が負であることを示す
第１因子
第２因子
第３因子
第４因子
第５因子

＜都市化に関する因子＞
第１次産業就業者比率、第３次産業就業者比率、財政力指数、医師数＜所得に関する因子＞
市町村民所得、付加価値生産性、高齢者のいる世帯割合＜高齢者医療に関する因子＞
国民健康保険診療費、老人医療費（入院）、老人医療費（入院外）＜生活自立の困難さに関する因子＞
高齢者単身世帯割合、他市町村で従業する就業者割合、生活保護法により保護率＜市町村の負の財政状態に関する因子＞
公債費比率、地方債現在高倍率、ホームヘルパー数

図１．市町村におけるホームヘルパー数と公債費比率の関係（秋田県の６９市町村のデータ、平成７年度・８年度）
３．都市問題としての過疎問題と urban-rural communication の必要性について
前節において、高齢者の医療福祉サービスの基盤整備状況を都市化との関連で考察したが、都市問題としての過疎問題は地域の健康増進の立場からはさらに別の角度から考察することができる。ここでは、３つの論点から urban-rural communication について考察することにする。
第１の論点として、生活習慣病と称される悪性新生物、心臓病、脳血管疾患の発症における生活習慣の都鄙較差の存在と都市化の進行に伴う都鄙較差の解消傾向を通して
urban-rural communication の問題を考える。過疎地域における疾病構造がいまだに農村地域
特有の生活習慣の残滓としてのパターンを示していることは確かである。一方、農村地域
においても生活習慣の都市化の波が押し寄せており、農村地域特有の疾病構造に変化を及
ぼしていものと思われる。生活習慣の中でもとりわけ慢性疾患と密接な関係のある食生活については、モータリゼーションの進展や大規模小売店の進出に伴う食品流通の均質化に

58

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | 日本における縮小現象

より、農村部においても都市型の食生活が広く受け入れられるようになっている。また、様々なメディアを通して農村地域の人々の考え方が都市的思考様式に馴染んできていることも確かである。就寝時刻、起床時刻、睡眠時間などの睡眠習慣についても都鄙較差が認められるが、都市化の進行に伴い過疎地域においても睡眠習慣の夜型化が進行しており、
生活習慣病のリスク要因の変容が認められる。従って、今後農村部あるいは過疎地域の対
人保健的な健康増進活動を進める上では、従来の都鄙較差でイメージされるステレオタイ
プな発想を切り捨てる必要があり、生活習慣の都鄙較差の実状に即した対応が必要であると思われる。
第２の論点として、高齢者医療福祉サービスにおける urban-rural communication について考える。高齢者の医療福祉サービスの提供システムを効率的に構築するために、マルチメ
ディアを活用した情報通信システムを利用する可能性が近時盛んに議論されている。自治体、民間の双方からこのようなマルチメディア活用の経験が蓄積されつつあるが、過疎地域の高齢者医療福祉サービスにおいてはとりわけその可能性は大きいものと考えられる。
東北地方の豪雪地帯の過疎地域においては、冬季における住民の医療福祉サービスへのアクセスが豪雪という気象条件により物理的に制限される。もし豪雪の過疎地域の在宅ケアにおいて、マルチメディアを利用した情報通信システムが整備されれば、都市の拠点施設
から豪雪過疎地域への高齢者医療福祉サービスへの支援が可能になるものと考えられる。
過疎地域へのマンパワー整備の進捗が必ずしもはかどらないときに、このようなネットワ
ーク型の支援システムが効率的に機能すれば、高齢者医療福祉サービスの都鄙較差解消の一助になることは間違いないであろう。このような urban-rural communication は高齢者医療
福祉サービスのみならず、救急医療サービスの都鄙較差の解消にも同様に役立つであろう。
第３の論点として、地域保健活動の効率的推進における urban-rural communication について考える。平成６年の地域保健法の制定以来、地域保健活動の推進における市町村の役割が大きくなった。同時に、市町村は自らが行う保健事業について評価を行いその改善につとめるものとされている。地域の健康水準とその優先順位は市町村ごとに異なり、各市町
村ごとに地域保健活動の進め方は一様でないことになる。都市部と過疎地域の自治体では
自分の地域の特性を考慮した上で地域診断を行い地域保健活動を推進していくことになるが、広域的な地方の中で保健領域の自らの位置を確認することは、保健活動を効率的に進めていく上で有益なことである。また、各市町村がこれまで蓄積した経験を相互に交流す
る機会を設けることは健康増進活動の重要なプロセスである。そのためには、地域保健に関する情報が一元的に管理され情報へのアクセスが容易なシステムを構築することが必要である。さらに、そのような情報ネットワークの構築以外に、定期的に開催される研修会
や技術交流の場を設ける工夫が必要である。市町村が自らの保健活動に関する情報を公開し、擬似的競争のような形で地域保健活動の質的向上を促すような方法も urban-ruralcommunication の一つの手法として考慮されて良いのではないかと考える。
＊本論文は、平成 10 年度日本衛生学会ワークショップ「新たな都市課題と衛生学」（平成10 年 10 月 11 日）の発表内容をもとにしている。
参考文献（１） 秋田県企画調整部情報統計課：わがまちわがむら１００の指標．秋田県統計協会、
1997．
（２） 秋田県：秋田県保健医療計画、秋田県福祉保健部医務薬事課、1998．
（３） 太田貞治他：２４時間在宅ケアへの挑戦、萌文社、1995．
（４） 高野健人：マルチメディア時代の医療と福祉．高齢社会をサポートする情報通信技術．日本評論社、1996．
（５） 高野健人：健康都市への提言、ぎょうせい、1991．
（６） 本橋 豊：都市生活者の睡眠覚醒リズムの乱れ、労働の科学、51 巻 12 号、768-771、
1996．

from: Journal of Healthy Cities Research Vol. 1 No. 1, June 2000
59

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

III | 23

Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in
Macro-Perspective

Keiro Hattori,
Urban Planner and Designer
Meijigakuin University

Presentation, held in the context of the Japanese German seminar „Revitalization of Shrinking
Cities“, September 18, 2006 in Eisenhüttenstadt / Germany

Shrinking Phenomena (Population)
Population began to
Decrease in 2004

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

III | 24

Shrinking Phenomena

2.19 in 1970

1.29 in 2005

Shrinking Phenomena• There are 2217 municipalities In Japan in 2005.
– 1605, more than 70% of which, are decreasing its populationfrom 2000.
– 30% of all municipalities has decreased more than 5% of its
population within this five years (2000-2005).

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Shrinking Phenomena

Smaller Municipalities shrink faster
Change of population 2000-2005

Population of municipalities

Small municipalities are
Shrinking!!

III | 25

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Metropolitan Region of Japan

97.1% ofJapanese live inMetropolitan
RegionMetropolitan Region of Japan
Population Change

Metropolitan Region

Not Metropolitan Area

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

III | 27

Population of Metropolitan Region
People in living suburbs
are relatively increasing

Total
Population

Rate of Mother City
Population in
Metropolitan
RegionPopulation of
Metropolitan Region

Shrinking Phenomena
Growth Change by Prefectures
Increase inTokyo, Osaka

Big increase inTokyo suburbs
Less disparity.
Every region is
not growing.

Huge decrease inTokyo, Osaka

Huge decrease in
Remote region

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Regions that are shrinking

However, shrinking has
already occurred in 1970s

Regions that are shrinking

In 1960s, many people
migrated toTokyo Metropolitan Region or
Osaka Metropolitan Region

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Regions that are shrinking• There has always been a shrinking phenomena in a certain
region of our country.
• Some population just moved out from a region to another region.
• In-migration from a rural region to a metropolitan region may
decrease recently, however, only few regions are growing.
– i.e. there used to be a loser and winner, however, thesedays, almost all regions are losers.

Shrinking Municipalities
Decrease more than 12% btw 2000-2005

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Shrinking Municipalities
Decrease more than 14%

Name

Ueno
Village
Minami Aiki
Nishimeya
Kawakami
Otoineppu
Kuriyama
Uku
HigashIyayamason
Nishi
Iyayamason
Nakagawa
Ashio
Tenkawa
Shosanbetu
Kanna
Ieshima

Decrease of PopulationRate of Decrease
-753
-438
-450

-33.0
-27.7
-22.0

-513

-20.1

-264

-19.8

-478

-19.8

-772

-19.3

-377

-16.3

-306

-16.0

-358

-14.5

-549

-14.5

-304

-14.4

-253

-14.3

-453

-14.1

-1,255-14.0

Some Global Comparison
Percent of Population older than 65

These municipalities
are shrinking
faster thenEisenhüttenstadt

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

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Some Global Comparison
Number of Birth from a Woman

Some Global Comparison (Population Change)

Japan

Korea

United States

United Kingdom
FranceGermanyItaly

1950-2000

1.52

2.48

1.80

1.18

1.42

1.20

1.23

2000-2050

0.88

0.95

1.39

1.14
1.06

0.96

0.88

III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Global Comparison

Population Density Comparison
RegionAve. of USA Cities

Ave. of European Citie
Ave. of Asian Cities
Tokyo

Metropolitan

14.2
49.9

161.9
71.0

Population Density per hectare
CBD

50.0
77.5

216.8
63.2

Inner

35.6
86.8

290.8

132.0

Outer

11.8
39.2

128.4
61.2

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Urban and Suburbs
City Center

SuburbsTokyo

Germany

Comparison between Germany vs. Japan

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Comparison between Germany vs. Japan                

Problems associated with Shrinking

Decrease of Density
is a Big Problem

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Case of Hakodate
Popluation

1985
2000

1960

Area of DID

Problems with Low Density* Low Density* Feasibility of Public
Transit Weakens* Service Level of
Public Transit Worsens* The distance oftravel destination
becomes much
farther* The Use of Private
Automobiles Prevail* Efficiency in managing
social infrastructure,social services decrease*A Loss of Local
Stores, Schools……
*A Loss of Sense ofCommunity* Inconvenientenvironment forever increasingelderly people* The Use of City
Energy is much more
inefficient
Air Pollution

A Loss of Precious Land

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III Shrinking Cities in Japan | Shrinking City Phenomena of Japan in Macro-Perspective

Shrinking is not a problem••

Shrinking is not a problem.
However, low density that can be associated with shrinking can cause aproblem.


••It is important to realize that cities
and regions are no longer
growing, but shrinking.
It is imperative to make a vision
and a plan of shrinking.

Shrinking is not a problem
•

•
•
•

However, if we keep making plans and policies that are based onassumptions that we will still keep growing, we could face a catastrophic
social condition in near future.
– Economical-wise, Energy-wise, Society-wise……..
We need to make plans and policies to shrink wisely.
Germany and Japan possess similar problems in terms of shrinking
population.
I hope that exchanging information and ideas regarding above matterswill help both countries to deal with shrinking issues.

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