Feasibility and Effects of Compact City Policies in Regional Urban Areas:

A Case Study of Sakata City in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of compact city policies in regional urban areas on administrative costs, focusing on Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan. Using publicly available datasets and data obtained from the municipal government through information disclosure requests, we calculated the costs related to public services (e.g., infrastructure maintenance and garbage collection) and estimated the per-capita costs for each section or block. We find that the costs are higher in suburban areas than in urban areas, indicating the cost-reduction effects of compact city policies.