Japanese metropolitan areas were formed by the concentration of people in large cities during the 1960s and subsequent suburbanization. As factors contributing to the concentration, demographers have argued that not only economic but also demographic factors were important, that is, the Japanese demographic transition from high fertility and mortality to low fertility and -mortality was so rapid that cohort groups which had a large number of siblings were created. Then non-successors in rural areas, called “potential lifetime out-migrants” moved to metropolitan areas.
The residential careers of this cohort have not been analyzed previously. In analyzing this cohortspecific migration experience, the concept of life-course is useful. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the residential careers of metropolitan suburbanites in detail.
Longitudinal data on residential careers were collected through a retrospective survey of 120 households in Kozoji New Town, a suburb of Nagoya. Those sampled were married men born between 1935 and 1955 and their wives. Most of the husbands were white-collar workers and more than half commuted to Nagoya.
The results of the analysis are summarized as follows:
(1) Migration upon events and between events
Residential careers are classified by three life events: leaving the parental home, marriage, and moving to a detached house in Kozoji New Town. Seventy percent of husbands and 30% of wives experienced the leaving the parental home before marriage. When they married, almost all married men moved within the metropolitan area, but a considerable number of their wives moved from a distance. After marriage, the number of rooms increased upon moving within the same city or same metropolitan area. After moving into a detached house in Kozoji New Town, their mobility became much lower than previously. However, some married man continued to transfer and moved to a new workplace alone, leaving their families in Kozoji New Town.
(2) Residential career by birthplace
Birthplaces of the sample population were divided into three categories: the Nagoya metropolitan area; the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas; and nonmetropolitan areas. The residential careers of those born in the last category were the most complex. Many married men born in nonmetropolitan areas moved to the Nagoya metropolitan areas when they left their parental homes, and many of them lived in the central city before marriage. But a considerable number of their wives had been living in theirr birthplace before marriage. Upon marriage, they moved to the Nagoya metropolitan area, not only the central city but also suburban areas. Judging from this, there were many differences between husbands and wives in the process of concentration in the Nagoya metropolitan area.
(3) Flow into Kasugai city from outside the Nagoya metropolitan area
Those born outside the Nagoya metropolitan area flowed into the Nagoya metropolitan area as a result of getting a job, job transfer, or marriage. Before the early 1970s they flowed into Nagoya city, but afterward they came to Kasugai city directly. The most important reason for this change was lifecycle stage: those who came to the Nagoya metropolitan area after the late 1970s brought their children and needed more living space. Therefore they preferred Kasugai city to Nagoya city although the husbands' new workplace after transfer was in Nagoya city.
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