Abstract
Chukyo or Chubu, the area of Nagoya City and its vicinity is often referred to as the third metropolitan area of Japan after Tokyo and Osaka. However, it is often disputed as to whether Nagoya should be referred to as one of these metropolises or on the same level as local centers such as Sappolo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka in the sense of its city-size and its accumulation of central management functions.
The central government of Japan is now preparing its fourth national comprehensive plan. In these preparations, Nagoya's status is one of the major discussion problems awaiting resolution in the prospect of Japan's future urban system.
Through the symposium, two points became quite clear as the characteristics of Nagoya: 1) It is the largest industrial center in Japan. 2) It has less accumulation of nationwide management functions. Although the importance of the location of higher level urban functions has been decreasing, there has been a relative increase in international and national production functions. Related to this point, Nagoya would not be included in the three major metropolises but would be referred to as the largest regional center (Hayashi, N.). Regarding the enterprise system, wide differentials have been observed between Nagoya and Osaka (Sawada, K.). Even in industrial functions, Nagoya's advanced higher technology and information level is nevertheless behind compared to Tokyo's Capital Region (Miyakawa, Y. and Ito, Y.).
Nagoya, located in between Tokyo and Osaka, could be still an interesting sabject of future study in the field of urban, economic and cultural geography and planning.
Papers submitted to the Symposium:
Hayashi, N. (Nagoya Univ.): Regional Economic Characteristics of Nagoya as a Middle City.
Miyakawa, Y. (Aichi Kyoiku Univ.): The Change of Industrial Structure and the Transformation of Chukyo Industrial Region.
Ito, Y. (Keio Univ.): Recent Trends and Urban Policies of Industrial Cities in Chukyo Region.
Sawada, K. (Nihon Univ.): Chukyo Region regarding the Enterprise System of Japan.
