Abstract
The phenomena of centralization and decentralization in functional urban regions (FURs) in Japan are examined for a long period, covering 1947-1990. The theoretical scheme employed is an extended version of Klaassen’s spatial-cycle framework, which makes use of a growth ratio instead of the absolute level of population, and the methodological instrument is the ROXY index. The result shows that the transition in urban cycle stages for FURs of almost same size or in geographically close location have great resemblance, and that, in macroscopic view, FURs in Japan can be divided into two groups, ‘leaders’ which includes the five largest FURs and ‘followers’ which includes the other FURs. These results suggest the possibility that intra-FUR urban cycles are coupled with one another through non-linear interaction.
