Abstract
This paper attempts a new regional division of agricultural areas based on tourism utilization potential of agricultural resources in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and examines its effectiveness. To obtain the tourism utilization potential coefficient for agricultural resources, the specialization coefficient of the tourism utilization rate was divided by the specialization coefficient of agricultural resources in each municipality in the Tokyo metropolitan area. A higher coefficient indicates that the agricultural resources are being fully utilized for tourism, while a lower coefficient indicates that tourism utilization of the agricultural resources is not progressing. In the isogram map of tourism utilization potential coefficients, areas with high potential coefficients spread from suburban areas in the western part of Tokyo to areas along the Chuo Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line. Regions with a medium potential coefficient surround the high potential regions, and regions with a low potential coefficient are distributed outside the sphere of medium potential coefficient regions. Regional divisions can be determined based on the spatial distribution of tourism potential of such agricultural resources and the targeted geographical area can be expanded to national scale. Therefore, this new classification based on tourism utilization potential can be proposed as an effective regional division for agricultural areas.
