Abstract
It is said that though the freight is a matter of the economical calculation and the economic policies, it has important influences upon various geographical phenomena. As it is well known, freight rates is one of the most important factor in the industrial location, and its local differences affecting upon the regional character and the movement of goods.
The author intends in the paper to analise the geographical structure of carload freight rates in Japan, and results obtained will be summed up as follows.
a) Though the method of drawing map remains still discussible, isophors (the contour lines of freight rates) are effective way to illustrate the geographical structure of the freight.
b) The freight structure is entangled in several places, and does not always exhibit typical concentric circles.
c) The complicated structure of railway freight rates is due to the detour of rails made by the presence of the metropolis and by topography, and, more strongly, to the institutional factors which are enforced by the railway authority in this country.
d) The structure of lorry freight rates is shown by considerable concentric circles, and is a comparatively regular one. But in the mountainous region, it is somewhat crooked irregularly and this is not by institutional factors as in railway but by the density of the road distribution.
e) By comparing these two structures, it is possible to gain the so-called competition lines of rail and lorry transportations. This line is varied by the sort of goods, the extra expences of railway transportation (i.e. collecting and delivery lorry charges to and from the railway station, loading and unloading charges, and commissions, etc.) and the degree of dumping rates of the lorry transportation.
f) The competition line gives a plenty of geographical significance, for it seems to delineate the nodal region of rail-lorry freight rates, and therefore, settles a standard of choice of transport facilities.
