At a major turning point of urban and regional policies, it is perceived that there is an increasing demand for urban geographers with scientific knowledge to analyze regions and communities. This paper discusses how we should develop a set of required skills: designing skill to structuralize issues and problems; analysis and presentation skill to quantify regional space; and communication skill to develop understanding and agreement. It further proposes establishment of structure and environment for geography education that responds the demands of the times from a viewpoint of an urban planner at a think tank that deals with urban and regional policies.

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In recent years, urban heat island studies in Japan show dramatic progress. Annual mean temperature in central Tokyo increased 3 degrees C for the last 100 years, which is 5 times faster than global mean temperature increasing rates. There are two causing factors for urban warming: the first one is a direct heating effect of urban atmosphere due to the increase in anthropogenic energy consumptions, and another one is the changes in urban structures such as the increase of artificial materials and high-rise buildings, along with the decrease of green spaces and water surface. Recently, a series of research projects revealed epoch-making phenomena caused by urban heat islands. For example, the cool island effect of large green parks in central Tokyo and the effect of high-rise buildings along the bayside on the weakening of sea breeze from the bay of Tokyo. Also, diurnal variations in summer temperature patterns of Tokyo city area based on the high density monitoring system have been clarified. In order to resolve those urban heat island problems, climatologists should make efforts to promote interdisciplinary studies by collaborating with the researchers of architecture, civil engineering, medical and ecological sciences.

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The author analyzed the role of Japanese geography as applied to solving environmental issues in the public sphere from the perspective of environmental governance, with special attention to the river environment, atomic power, and the underground disposal of high-level radioactive garbage. The study revealed that at present Japanese geography has not responded to social demands for increased openness and activity in the public sphere, because disciplinary boundaries limit accessibility. The author urges a radical review and deconstruction of geography as a field and the geographical education system, supported by the development of a second journal (E-journal GEO).

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