Geography, by its nature, is a broad interdisciplinary academic field with numerous sub-fields. In order to reinforce the identity and social presence of geography as a total discipline, geographers of different sub-fields should have a chance to co-operate upon topics of common concern. Planning and evaluation of regional development have been and will be a good opportunity for geographers to work together with each other, and with people of related academic or administrative background.
This symposium was organized to review and showcase the recent and present situation of geographers' participation and involvement in various kinds of regional development projects in Japan. Following the organizer's speech by Nishikawa, O., fifteen presentations were given in four sessions. Reviews of regional planning in post-war Japan and case study reports of the Kitakami river basin were read in the first session. Takasaki, M. reviewed major regional development projects in post-war Japan from the perspective of national land development policy, while Chitose, H. focused upon the “National Capital Region” or the Kanto plain. Nakahara, R. discussed the Kitakami river “Techno-Zone” from administrative standpoint, and Kawamoto, C., Chida. N., and Uchida, K. evaluated the Kitakami river general development in 1950's and 1960's centring upon the river flood control. Rural area development was discussed in the second session, where Konno, S. pointed out the need of enterprenuership in the rural local-scale development, and Nakaya, S. showed the change of agriculture in the northern part of Iwate prefecture. The third session was on the urban area development. Hattori, K. and Takahashi, H. discussed the urban development planning of Morioka, the prefectural centre of Iwate Prefecture, from academic and administrative viewponits respectively. Takahachi, K, reported an interesting case of Kitakami, where a newly-built shopping centre gave a fatal impact upon the traditionally established local shopping complex. And Kawaguchi, T, analysed a case of Hachioji in the west suburb of Tokyo. Some general topics were referred in the last session, where Kubo, S. explained the information system of the TVA, and Matsuda, H. reviewed the role of maps in regional development projects. Murata, K. concluded the symposium with a general review of development and industrialization in the Tohoku region.
Through the discussion, it turned out to be clear that regional “gap” or unequall economic development might be found not only between metropoles and countrysides, but also among periphery regions. In some sense, the symposium failed to give a clear description and explanation of such inequality, but, as some speakers pointed out, it would not be explained by traditionally mentioned environmental and climatic factors nor by simple indice of local economy. Several topics were left to be answered some other day.
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