Research on Urbanization

- A Comparative Analysis between Kyoto Prefecture in Japan and Shanxi Province in China -

Abstract

China has not experienced so much as Japan on the subject of urbanization. So China should learn many things about the urban planning from Japan. In this paper the Chinese urban planning is investigated through a comparative analysis between Kyoto Prefecture in Japan and Shanxi Province in China. As is well known, both Kyoto Prefecture and Shanxi Province have historical cities (Kyoto and Xian), and for the purpose of reserch of issues on urbanization, it should be of very important significance to investigate and compare these two cities and their surrounding regions through the similarities and the differences between their today's situations after each long histories.The method of this reserch is the comparison of the process of urbanization in each region classified by their similarities from the viewpoint of a principal component analysis. As the result of the analysis, it is clarified that despite of the distance the “looks” of both Kyoto Prefecture and Shanxi Province are quite similar, however, as to their forming processes Kyoto Prefecture takes a population-concentrating type, while Shanxi Province takes so called a galaxy type. On the basis of these results, the construction of “the urban-rural coexisting society” is suggested for the prospective national land planning of China.