Urban Agglomerations in Japan ─ Proposal of Delineating Contiguous Densely Inhabited Districts for Japanese Data Applied to World Urbanization Prospects ─

Abstract

According to the reports titled World Urbanization Prospects published by the Population Division of the United Nations, “urban agglomeration” is defined as the population that is contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels without regard to administrative boundaries.　The author points out over-estimates of population of urban agglomerations for Japan in the Prospects due to inappropriate use of the Japanese data as well as to confusion in spatial concepts.　As for Japan, the author proposes to delineate a spatial unit based on Contiguous Densely Inhabited Districts conforming more closely to the definition of urban agglomeration of the Prospects described above.