Japanese cities have mainly expanded their urban areas horizontally. In recent years, however, drastic vertical integration has occurred through the construction of multistoried buildings, particularly in CBD. In large cities the increase of offices and motor cars has aggravated managerial circumstances of retail in CBD. As a result, underground shopping streets have been constructed as a type of vertical differentiation of urban functions. Connected with the basement of multistoried buildings, they have created new space for retail in CBD.
The author investigated underground shopping streets in Nagoya. The main results are summarized as follows:
(1) Underground shopping streets in Nagoya were constructed at the traffic junctions namely “Sakae” and “Nagoya-ekimae” (the front area of Nagoya Station), below public roads, simultaneously with the construction of subways. They were connected with the subway stations. This has provided many people with easy access to underground shopping streets, showing rapid development after 1957.
(2) The Process of development on underground shopping streets In the first place a group of shops were located along the underground pedestrian passageways which connect subway stations and other means of transport. Then shopping promenades interconnected these areas and the basements of adjacent multistoried buildings. This resulted in the increase of underground space for retail. A further step was taken after 1969. The extension of underground shopping streets was run on such a large scale as over 10, 000 square meters and was linked to the existing underground shopping streets. Thus the enlarged underground shopping streets came to be the central shopping areas of the city.
(3) According to the categories of business they contain, underground shopping streets can be classified into two types: one containing many restaurants, coffeehouses and food stores with a choice variety, the other containing many specialty shops dealing in clothes. The underground shopping streets below the front area of Nagoya Station belong to the former type. Those at Sakae district belong to the latter; Sakae has a long prosperous history as a central shopping center of the city.
(4) There are many chain stores among shops on underground shopping streets. As their head offices are located in Tokyo, their window decoration and their line of commodities have lost regional characteristics peculiar to Nagoya. This has promoted among people of the city an inclination to the center-oriented fashion and culture.
(5) Floor space of a shop on underground shopping streets is rather small compared to that of a shop on ground shopping streets. Because of the favorable location, the rents are very high. Shops on underground shopping streets thus specialize highly in the assortment of goods to attract young customers. Under these circumstances the underground shopping streets cannot raise their importance as central figures in retail of the city without maintaining a strong interdependence with neighboring department stores that aim at a large custom with a rich assortment of goods.
(6) There are many branch stores on underground shopping streets and very few shops are run by proprietor in person. Thus underground shopping streets constitute a community of employees. Besides they are doing business with young people as regular customers, there are many young employees accordingly. The underground shopping streets with these young employees thus form a community of tradespeople functioning under the control of their head offices. It affords contrast against the community of merchants heretofore in general in Japan.
(7) One of the reasons why underground shopping streets have developed in CBD of large cities in Japan is that there are many people availing themselves of public mass transport and that underground shopping streets have been constructed at its junctions.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the process of the formation of vacant lots in a metropolitan region based on intensive field survey. The term “vacant lots” is defined here as pieces of land visibly idle in urbanized areas.
First, the distributional patterns of vacant lots are examined in the Okayama Metropolitan Region. Next, examples of three districts which differ in degrees of urbanization, social institutions and so forth have been presented. Those three districts are located in 1) the suburbs close to the central city, 2) the farm areas, and 3) the suburbs on the fringes of metropolitan regions where many housing complexes are located.
The findings are as follows:
1) There are two types of vacant lots in the suburbs close to the central city. One type is formed when farmlands are directrectly turned into dwelling areas. The other is formed when farmland is no longer cultivated and turned into wasteland of fallow land. It has been formed that the former type may be caused either by a demand for residential land or a farmer's willingness to non-farming utilization of farmland. Under such circumstances, active trading of farmland is common. One of the reasons why farmland is sold is to raise funds to build rental houses. However, in some cases reclaimed farmland remains idle to fall into the category of “vacant lots”. But these vacant lots may come to be used for residential and other purposes, as landowners change their minds in turn, by changes in socio-economic conditions. The elements of the socio-economic conditions include the progress of urbanization, regional development policies, etc.
The other type may be attributable to the shortage of agricultural labor, for most of the farmers living in the suburbs close to the central city are earning income mostly from work other than farming. Many of them are self-employed managing retail stores and houses for rent. However, vacant lots in this category may also be turned into residential lots over time. That is, after a certain period of time, the vacant lots in the latter category may be formed through the similar process as those in the former category.
2) The process of vacant land formation in the farming areas is very simple. The vacant lands are caused by the shortage of agricultural labor. The process of vacant land formation is similar to that of the latter type of the vacant lots formed in the suburbs close to the central city. However, the reasons for the decrease in agricultural labor in the farming areas essentially differ from those in the suburbs. That is, the shortage of labor has been brought about either by the fact that farmers can obtain regular employment in the central city or by the fact that they come to engage in more productive sections of agriculture, e.g. dairy and livestock farming.
3) The vacant lots on the fringes of the metropolitan region, however, has been caused by developers as well as by those who purchase land for private housing. A number of lots in the housing development areas simply remain unused for a considerable period of time. Some of these lots are purchased for speculative purposes. Farmland around such suburban housing area is little effected by the new development.

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In any big city in Japan, especially in Tokyo and Osaka, spreads a certain extent of land with various kinds of factors in the land use. Taking the case of Tokyo, such an area can be seen in Jotoh area (the eastern part of Tokyo).
The purpose of this treatise is to clarify the complicated structutre of the land use in Katsushika ward in Jotoh area and to show the most effective method of approach to the analytical study.
At first, the present writer made a searchnig inquiry into the state of the utilization of the whole land and every building in Katsushika ward, and classified the collected data into 15 groups according to the factors in the land use, und mapped them.
Secondly, the present writer analized the data by Grid Method according to the factors in the land use, and made a comparative study of those factors.
Thirdly, the present writer organized 5 groups (such as Industry, Commerce, Residence, other building, and Non-building area, that is, open lot) for 15 factors in accordance with their functions, and by use of the distribution chart of those groups, tried to clarify the complicated structure of the land use and the characteristics of the area.
This method is seemed to be the most fundamental and effective when we wish to clarify the utilization of land in a big city. Moreover, the analized data are not only useful for the urban study, but also indispensable to the further development of the adjustment of such big cities.

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