Abstract
In a large city like Tokyo, there are “integrated industrial-residential areas” where small scale factories and residences are compactly mixed. Such areas present many pro-blems from the standpoint of land utilization in a large city. The redevelopment of such areas has come to be one of the most important problems of city planning. When under-taking the redevelopment of such “integrated industrial-residential areas”, it is prerequisite to make clear the regional characteristics by conducting a detailed study. However, up to the present, there has been scarcely any research dealing “integrated industrial-residential areas” In studies of large cities in Japan.
The purpose of the present study is to present the results of field analysis conducted in two areas representative of “integrated industrial-residential areas” in Tokyo. The writer conducted field survey in all the factories in the two selected areas ; namely th Arakawa area in the Joto district (the eastern part of Tokyo) and the Ohta area in the Jonan district (the southern part of Tokyo).
The following are summaries of the analysis of data obtained from the present study.
1. In both areas small factories with less than 30 workers compose more than 90% of the whole factories. Especially in the Arakawa area, very small factories with three workers or less compose more than 40% of all. As for the kinds of manufacturing, in the Arakawa area about 70% are those of the light industry, such as clothing, wood-working, and toy-making. While in the Ohta area, more than 70% are of the machine industry. In both areas, the factories and residences are intermixed irregularly.
2. The factories require various kinds of basic materials and semifinished materials provided by subcontracting factories. All of these suppliers of primary materials and semi-finished materials were located in or in the vicinity of each area. Delivery of finished products were made mostly to establishments located in the same area. Manufacturers which deliver their products to establishments outside their area are comparatively large scale manufacturers. Such manufacturers in the Ohta area deliver their products to establishments in Kawasaki City and Yokohama City, and those of the Arakawa area, to establishments in Ueno, Asakusa, and Kanda districts, where the wholesale merchants are concentrated.
3. Most of the factory owners and members of their families worke in their own factories and many of them live in the factories. Most of the workers also live within the factory compound, if not within the vicinity. It can be said that the factory and its com-pound serve both functions of manufacturing and housing.
In these “integrated industrial-residential areas”, the daytime occupants and the nighttime occupants are the same. The factory is the place of their whole livelihood. Pro-duction and distribution are mostly accomplished within a very limited space. These areas are different from the residential areas of commuting workers where the occupants increase at night, and the business areas or the large plant areas, where the occupants increase tremendously during the day
In order to undertake the redevelopment of areas in a large city, it is essential to pro-perly evaluate the structure and function of “the integrated industrial-residential area” since it makes up an important structural part of the large city.
