抄録
It is widely believed that, since 1970, the flow of population had been beginning to show signs of transformation from concentration in big cities to accumulation in the local cities or of the population redistribution, due to the increase of the number of return migrants from the metropolitan areas. However, the careful analysis on the population changes of the local urban areas and of the metropolitan areas since 1960 reveal that the basic flow of population had not transfered to the accumulation in the local cities and that it have been going on the accumulation in big cities and in local cities through all years since 1960. This fact is supported by the results obtained from the analysis on the estimated number of netmigration by age for the prefectures other than in metropolitan areas. The main findings of the analysis are (1) among prefectures other than in metropolitan areas, some prefectures, in which the major local cities locate, have a lower net-out-migration rate in ages between 15 and 25 and a higher rate of net-in-migration in ages between 25 and 39 than the remaining prefectures, and (2) the loss of population brought about by the out-migration in the prefectures other than in metropolitan areas have not been able to fill up by the inmigration.
