Japan: the slowing of urbanization and metropolitan concentration

In the following sections, we examine in detail patterns of recent population changes in Japan as well as socio-demographic and economic changes associated with them. In the next section, we outline the approach for this study of urbanization and counterurbanization in Japan, defining the geographic basis and identifying problems associated with the definition, in addition to discussing the availability of data and major data sources. In the third section, we look at the trend of post-war population changes, focusing upon the patterns of population concentration/deconcentration as well as migration. We examine socio-demographic and economic characteristics of migrants such as the sex ratio and the age structure in the fourth section. In the fifth section, we investigate possible causes of population movement, touching upon impacts of population redistribution policies in post-war Japan. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of our findings. -from Authors