Abstract
Land use studies in Japan in the 1980s have been reviewed and evaluated, their outcomes and related problems discussed, and a new direction for the discipline proposed, based on the achievements of the International Symposium on Land Use Change and Its Processes held at Asahikawa and Sapporo in August 1987 under the auspices of the IGU. The reference articles have been drawn not only from geography, but from several other disciplines, partly because of the interdisciplinary nature of land use studies, and partly because of the lack of coordination of the related disciplines. It has been argued that serious problems exist with regard to the provision and use of national land use data, as well as the excessive regionalism that leads to an ignorance of the national context. It has been proposed to establish an independent and interdisciplinary approach capable of both enhancing the people's understanding of national land use and making sound, fact-based proposals for present and future land use.
