Abstract
The land-value of streets is a useful criterion for the purpose of studying the locality of Central Business Districts (CBDs), as the core of the economic activities in the city region. Combining the area and the difference between the highest and the lowest land-value of CBDs, the types of CBDs are established according to the pattern, area and function of each CBDs:
(1) When the CBDs of the city region are situated further from main railway stations, the differences between the highest and the lowest land-value of CBDs diminish generally at a higher rate than the diminishing rate of the area of CBDs.
(2) Generally, the rank of CBDs is proportional to the city population, except for some industrial cities without prefectural governments : eg. Kawasaki, Hamamatsu, Himeji, and a city with geographical difficulty for its activities : eg. Kanazawa.
Obeserved from the distribution of CBDs, cities belonging to the lowest rank of CBDs dD type are distributed mainly in the Tohoku District and southern Kyushu District, while cities belonging to the higher rank of CBDs aA, aB and bA types are distributed in the Tokai District, Setouchi District and northern Kyushu District.
(3) “aA” type denotes the most extensive area and a noticeable difference between the highest and the lowest land-value of CBDs, and the CBDs of “aA” type consist of the streets with various functions, the maximum land-values being the business streets.
“dD” type denotes the smallest area and the lowest difference, and the CBDs of “dD” type are organized with the least and lowest functions, with shopping streets having the maximum land-values.
Each type between the largest “aA” and the smallest “dD” type is decided according to the relations between two elements—the area of CBDs and the difference between the highest and the lowest land-value of the established CBDs.
