2003 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 3-21
Previous studies of residential moves have mainly focused upon the behavior of nuclear family. These studies traced the trajectories of residence which usually originate from around the core of metropolis and end in the suburban residential areas. Recently, however, households with a career-oriented working wife tend to move to the vicinity of the CBD. And part of single women, who have often been assumed to be a housewife in Japan, begins to choose a lifestyle to stay single and to buy a condominium for herself. It is important to investigate the residential behavior of these women to consider changes of the urban housing market and geographical structure of the city. The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of residential choices of working women and their household. The study is based upon the questionnaire survey of women working in the CBD of Tokyo metropolitan area. According to the census data, married women working in the CBD tend to live near the workplace. On the contrary, married men have the tendency to commute from the suburbs to the CBD. The analysis of survey data reveals that nuclear families with working wife reside more in the vicinity of CBD than DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) do. These findings are not consistent with time-honored lifecycle model of residential trajectory. One reason of the fact is that more husbands of DINKs have the workplace in suburban subcenters than those of nuclear family. And that nuclear families with a working wife are more likely to move to the vicinity of CBD is another reason. This paper also contains the preliminary studies of single women who own a condominium. These women are moderate both in educational background and in earnings. They choose the location of condominiums primarily concerning the accessibility to public transportation and most of them buy the condominium along the same railway as the previous residence. The ircumstance does not easily allow single women to buy their own condominiums yet. But, because single women who would like to live out their lives in rental apartments arc quite little, the women who slay single and buy their own condominiums would increase in the future.
