2017 Volume 69 Issue 4 Pages 425-446
Lack of accessibility and differential access to various facilities and services in urban areas of Japan, especially access to medicine and healthcare, is expected to become problematic in the near future. This paper examined such a possible transformation and the problems of accessibility to hospital beds in a suburban residential area (northern metropolitan Osaka) by analyzing accessibility using the two-step floating catchment area method and evaluating current urban planning. Our current accessibility analysis identified two different accessibility problems related to hospital beds: insufficient supply and disparity among transportation modes or neighborhoods. As of 2025, our accessibility projections, based on improvements in public transportation and controls on the number and types of medical care beds, suggest that actual resolution of such problems requires a multifaceted approach to utilize existing resources in the study area. Furthermore, inpatient reductions through medicine/health policies by each prefecture and the Japanese government might lead to serious shortages in nursing homes. Investigation of current urban planning identified the following two critical requirements to improve accessibility to medical facilities and nursing homes: promotion of cooperation between the planning implemented by each municipality and specialized medicine/health policies that target broader areas, beyond individual municipalities, and continuation of a flexible and critical examination into the validity of current urban planning by each municipality.
