1992 Volume 65 Issue 2 Pages 129-144
Motorization in Japan has been developing since the 1960's and presently shows no signs of decline. Increasingly significant portions of the population are now concentrated in the large urban areas centering around Tokyo, while the surrounding residential areas have expanded concentrically outward. Meanwhile agricultural areas, mountain and fishing villages, and areas with declining industries present conspicuous signs of population decline. With regard to the ratios of transportation means for commuting, and the spreading of privately-owned cars per household of the administrative divisions: wards, cities, and prefectures of Japan, based on the 1980 national census, have identified regional patterns and trends. The areas with higher ratios of commuters by public transportation than by privately-owned cars are limited to only the two metropolitan areas of Tokyo and Osaka and the central cities of the wider region constituted of several prefectures: Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kita-Kyushu and Fukuoka and its surrounding cities. The residential suburbs of Tokyo and Osaka display a high-commuting ratio by public transportation and a low-spreading ratio of automobiles per household. The automobile was found to be the most frequent transportation means for commuting in Japanese cities except in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. The central part of Japan, covering Chubu and northern Kanto areas, represents an especially high commuting by car ratio and a high spreading ratio of privately-owned cars.
These findings reflect the fact that traffic congestion and the lack of parking space in large metropolitan areas work as factors inhibiting commuting by car and car ownership. Consequently, a considerable life-style difference has been confirmed between large city areas, in which commuting by public transportation is common, and the medium and small cities more distant from large metropolises, agricultural areas, and mountain and fishing villages, in all of which commuting by car is more popular and common. Wide-spread use of automobiles as the primary mode of transportation not only provides convenience, but also generates various problems such as the decline of public transportation and additional restriction on an already partially-immobilized segment of the general population, that is the physically-challenged and the elderly.
