Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to find out a nature of Japanese cities by means of develo ping a parsimonious set of urban functions.
The study covered variables on population size and structure, population change, economic and social characteristics, and level of education. The areal data unit was mostly based on the Densely Inhabited District (DID). Fifty variables and 189 cities with DID population in 1960 of 30, 000 or over represented the sample. Using Principal Component Analysis, underly ing dimensions between these samples were examined to test the consistency of the compo nent in terms of the parallel sets of data. They are composed of three sets of cities grouped according to regions of Core, Southwestern and Northeastern parts of Japan, and four sets of cities according to the DID population sizes of 30, 000 to 50, 000, 50, 000 to 100, 000, 100, 000 to 250, 000 and 250, 000 or over. A separate component analysis was carried out for each group. The management functions and social status are predominant in all groups except in the case of large cities. As to the group of large cities, urban economic base comes out from the first component.
As a result, the pattern is broadly similar and a study of the factor loadings confirmed that the certain variables are commonly related to the first two components among these samples with substantial correlation of ± 0.300 or over. These variables associated with the first component referring to management functions and social status are namely educational series, white-collar occupations, % in finance (DID), % in service (E.), and population change of 1960-65 for both DID and incorporated cities. Another group of variables forming the second component, which is named as central functions, are sex ratio, and per capita retail and wholesale sales. This study would be a necessary prerequisite to much that can be done toward the interpretation of the system in urbanization of contemporary Japan.
Finally, the author would like to dedicate this paper to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Professor Fumio Tada who has given constructive advices and stimulating criticisms in the field of geographical discipline.
