抄録
The objective of this study is to throw light on the conditions of stable population growth in the hinterlands of medium size cities, making analysis on the changes in population and employment mix in 20 city regions in Chubu region in Japan. The facts found are : (1) All city regions show decentralization of employment in secondary industry but it does not necessarily lead population to increase in hinterlands though it checks depopulation to some extent. (2) Population is more increased by the employment increase in tertiary industry than secondary in the municipalities with the population size above certain level (about 10, 000 inhabitants). (3) Population change in acity region depends on the increase of jobs which can absorb young workers. On the contrary, current trend is the rapid increase of jobs for middle/old aged workers in secondary industry. Some planning implications extracted from the points mentioned above are : (1) Tertiary industry should be paid more attention not only because it has attractiveness to young workers but because it is the economic base for stable population increase in the communities with the population size above certain level, if tertiary industry rather than secondary is more equivalent to the concept of "Minimum required employment mix as cannot exist without the certain level of population agglomeration in terms of size and density" that thesis 1 has dealt with. (2) At the same time, such settlement pattern as indicated by population size/density should be studied not only as the reference materials for physical planning but as the precondition for economic base in both central cities and hinterlands.
