GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES
Online ISSN : 2432-096X
Print ISSN : 0286-4886
ISSN-L : 0286-4886
A Study on the Suburbanization and the Movement of the Shopping Streets in Kabe-cho, Hiroshima
Masashi TSUJIMURA
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1979 Volume 31 Pages 21-32

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Abstract

The centrifugal expansion of housing estates causes the population to straggle, and rernarkable changes are detected in the aspects of shopping streets in the traditional 10cal centers. It is natural that shopping streets should be formed where some shopping streets have been existing in some form or other since the olden times. But there is an excep-tion that a shopping street declines when its locational condition has become remarkably worse through housing development. On the assumption that the traffilc system has been the geographical cause of the 10cational movement of the shopping street in Kabe-cho, where suburbanization is in an advanced stage, the writer compared the new shopping street with the old one, and investigated into the period of the movement and the change in respect of appearance and function. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) The new shopping street was formed on the paddy field zone through the opening of the bypass in 1964 and the subsequent change of the bus route the next year. The street mentioned above has two functions: one for shopping and the other for busi-ness transaction. At the early stage of the formation of the new shopping street many stores were opened, that is, stores removed from the old street, and new branches were opened with the local capital. But with the gradual increase of the capital inflow from Hiroshima City, the shop-ping street dashed into a period of cubic development as the result of the expansion of big stores to this area after 1971. Through such process of development this street has established its position as the central shopping street in Kabe-cho. (2) The old shopping street formerly developed into the central shopping street sup-ported by the old tradititon, but the formation and development of the new one owing to the expansion of suburban area exercised a great infiuence on the old one. For exarnple, the numbr of new stores has increased, while that of changed and closed stores has slso increased, and at the same time some stores removed to the new shopping street or they opened their branches. Thus the old shopping street was transformed to a high level shopping street, but recently its locational condition relatively depreciated through the change of the bus route and the development of new street. The result was that some stores were compelled to change their business or rernove their location. As for the shopping street near the station, the same transformation is perceived. (3) The trade area of Kabe is embraced in that of Hiroshima, and is the largest among those in the northern part of Hiroshima. Nowadays the consumers recognize the new shopping street as the main one in the Kabe-cho. (4) In Kabe and its neighboring area, where people depend chi.efly on cars of transpor-tation. In the new shopping streets some parking places are established and it is very convenient for the car drivers who are inhabited in Kabe and its neighboring area. On the contrary, in the old one, in spite of the availability of the railway, the number of people ~vho use it is rather small. Moreover, the old one is fL111 of troubles, because it cannot confonTl itself to the change of times. (5) Kabe-cho has not still lost its part as a local center in the northern region of Hiroshima. The fonnation of a new street has quickened the rejuvenation at the town and it has also helped the modernization of the area to promote further. (6) The gap in function and landscape between the new one and the old one had widened acceleratively because of the failul~e of modernization of the old shopping street and the inability of its storekeepers to awaken themselves to the necessity of moderniza-tion.

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