Abstract
Numerous studies on the spatial pattern of Tokyo metropolitan area and its change have been done mainly by urban geographers and urban sociologists. However, most of the previous studies were not sufficiently able to capture the spatial pattern since they chiefly analyzed data aggregated by administrative unit. The purpose of this study is to reexamine the spatial pattern of occupational structure and its changes in Tokyo metropolitan area using grid square statistics and to explore the background of the changes in the spatial patterns considering the demographic shift between 1995 and 2005.
The results show that the spatial pattern of occupational structure based on the spatial unit of municipality has shifted from a sectoral pattern to a concentric one, which is approximately consistent with the previous studies in urban sociology. A similar spatial pattern was observed in the result of the analysis with grid square statistics in the zone within a radius of 15 kilometers from central Tokyo and the outer fringe of the metropolitan area. This can be due to a centripetal movement of white-collar workers owing to the increase of housing supply in downtown Tokyo. However, the result based on grid square statistics indicated a radial pattern along railroads in the zone between 15 kilometers and 30 kilometers from the central Tokyo. In addition, segregation by occupational structure according to the distance from railroads has become prominent in the suburbs. This trend, which is hard to be captured by analyzing data aggregated by administrative unit, implies that not only residential segregation but also social polarization has progressed in the suburb of Tokyo.
