In a densely inhabited compact city, more customers could potentially visit shops and stores to significantly boost sales mainly in the retail and service businesses. Particularly, the services business is considered to depend on the number of visiting customers for its sales, because its services are difficult to ship and store, unlike goods. Increased sales in a compact urban structure should in turn improve sales efficiency. In fact, a positive correlation holds between the population density and the amount of sales per retailer floor space (Figure 2-2-7).

Nursing insurance-based home-visit nursing care services providers who serve users living in the same building as the providers (limited to special nursing homes for the aged, low-cost nursing homes for the aged, pay

(Note) The amount of sales per retail floor space is calculated by the annual amount of commodity sales by the retailers in an entire city divided by the retailers' selling floor space.

Source) Developed by MLIT from the "2010 National Census", MIC, and the "2010 Economic Census", Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

nursing homes for the aged and serviced elderly housing) have their amounts of nursing-care rewards reduced, because they are relieved of labor, as for traveling, to provide their services. For example, if reduction-applied and reduction-exempt home-visit nursing care offices are compared, differences are noticeable in the traveling time spent by nursing care helpers and the number of visits paid by them (Figure 2-2-8). If many services users come to live in the vicinity of a nursing care office in a compact urban structure, the cost of traveling incurred for welfare purposes might be trimmed accordingly.

Figure 2-2-8 Number of Visits Paid by Home-Visit Nursing Care Helpers and Their Traveling Times

Number of visits paid by home visit nursing care helpers a day (depending on whether their facilities are reward reduction-applied or –exempt)

Shortest and longest traveling times form offices to users' homes (by users' location)

Office category	Number of visits paid	Ratio of the traveling time to the working time	Shortest	Longest
Reward reduction-applied offices	5.6	Building adjoining the office or located in the same premises or in a neighboring location across the street	2.9 minutes	5.3 minutes
Reward reduction-exempt offices	3.5	Detached housing located elsewhere	5.8 minutes	28.4 minutes

Source) "FY2012 Elderly Healthcare Programs: Survey and Studies on the Assessment of Home-Visit Nursing Care Services," Japan Research Institute, Ltd.

A compact urban structure, along with a heightened population density, will make it possible to provide administrative services more efficiently than before, which might help trim administrative costs. Spending needed to maintain and manage public facilities and urban infrastructures could also be cut, as they are made more efficient to maintain and manage. Furthermore, many of the administrative services made available to citizens, such as snowplowing and garbage collection, vary in their cost depending from one urban structure to another. Actually, a negative correlation is noticed between the population density of a municipality and its administrative cost per capita (Figure 2-2-9).

(Note) Average administrative costs for the three years from FY2006 to FY2008 calculated based on the "Municipal Settlement Status Survey" by MIC.

Source) A Compilation of Long-Term Prospects of the National Land, MLIT