Previouw studies on residential mobiligy and housing policies in Japan have focused mainly on the household of married couples, assuming the single life as a transitional life stage. Recently, however, the number of one-person households has increased in the Japanese metropolitan area, namely Tokyo. The rate of single women, ages 25-39, Has especially grown in the last decade, mainly due to the increase of late marriage and more working women. This also appearsto reflect the changing family norms and labor markets common to the advanced countries. Such a rapid growth of one-person households of single women may have an influence on the transformation of urban spatial structure. The purpose of this study is to examine the residential choice process of single women and to analyze the factors affecting it. In order to identify these, this study adopts a multi-method approach combining quantitative and quelitative methods, which is expected to compensate the limitations of each method. It can also enable us to understand the process of residential choice, considering its voluntary aspect and various constrains. Data were collected and analyzed through the following three methods: (1) Census data on the spatil distribution of single women were mapped with Geographic Information Systems (GIS); statistical analyses were made of gender segregation of one-person householods by age group. (2) Data obtainen by a questionnaire survey usign the Internet, for 103 unmarried female workers at the ages of 30's, were quantitatively analyzed. (3) A focus group interview was conducted for 11 single women chosen from their responses to the questionnaire concernning their housing problems and residential choice processes. The content of these interviews were recorded and qualitatively analyzed. The results of the analyses are summarized as follows: The rate of single women at the ages of 30-39 living alone in Tokyo Metropolitan area amounts to 25%, twice the average rate of Japan. While the number of the one-person households of single women of tese ages remains at 143,661 in 1995, accounting for 1.2% of the total number of households in the study area, it remarkable increased at a rate of 26% during the past decade. As a result, some real estate companies have shown interest in this household subgroup as novel customers in the housing market, and have promoted marketing, and developed apartments and condominniums for the single women. The household of single women at these ages concentrates in the western vicinities of the CBD, namely, Ymanote upland. Though that of the male counterpart shows a similar pattern, its distrivution is relatively dispersed to suburbs and somewhat concentrates in the coastal industrial zone. The index of dissimilarity confirms suche a separation between single men and women. The spatial distribution of the single women implies that prefer convenient places to short commutes. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the questionnaire data. The result of the analysis shows that the greather part of the respondents work at offices in and around the CBD, engaging in clerical or professional jobs. Most of their commuting times are less than 60 minutes, being below Tokyo average. This tendency corresponds to the fact that the most important reason for their residential choice is accessibility to railway stations. However, the type of residence and working style show marked differences between income classes. Most of the respondents in the relatively lower income bracket live in low-proced rental apartments working relatively short times. In contrast, a considerable part of the respondents in the higher income bracket engaged in longer work, live in high-priced apartments and some of them own condominiums. The answers to the open-ended questions about housing problems revealed constraints on housing choices of single women. Especially, a great deal of them face
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