It is important for studies of Japanese urban systems to investigate the present features of firm activities in cities of each hierarchical order. Particularly, branch offices of firms play an important role within firm activities of provincial and prefectural capitals in non-metropolitan regions. In this paper the author attempts to examine the functions and roles of branch offices of wholesale trades and producer services located in Hiroshima City as a case study by analyzing about 530 postal questionnaires answered from these branch offices. The main results are summarized as follows:
1. Most of the branch offices located in Hiroshima have their headquarters in Tokyo or Osaka. The firms of wholesale trades were mainly established in the period before or just after World War II and set their branch offices during the period of high economic growth (1960 to 1973) in Hiroshima. On the other hand, many branch offices of producer services were established after the 1980's, while the firms they belong to were founded dominantly during the 1970's and 1980's.
2. Although the firms of both types identify Hiroshima as the provincial capital in the Chugoku District, many of them regard the future development of Hiroshima as stagnated or slightly declining. At the same time, many branch offices of wholesale trades consider that the future development of Hiroshima depends on the development of Mazda, Inc., an automobile company headquartered in Hiroshima which has recently suffered from severe damage in the business depression. On the other hand, they expect the future development of rival city Okayama in the Chugoku District. But even if Hiroshima were to slightly decline and Okayama were to be developed in the future, few firms have said that they will move their branch offices from Hiroshima to Okayama.
3. The main reason why most firms have established their branch offices in Hiroshima is due to its being the provincial capital with the largest service area in the Chugoku or the Chugoku and Shikoku District. And then-branch offices of wholesale trades refer to“a large amount of trade within Hiroshima”as the second most frequent answer, while those of producer services mainly point to the“favorable situation for managing the Chugoku District”.
Branch offices of both types are concentrated in the four old wards including the city center (57.0 percent of 2, 134 branch offices in total). This is because of the favorable accessibility and the better conditions of face-to-face contact. Added to large opportunities for business in the city center, this accounts for about 70 percent of total answers. Although the location movement of offices from city centers to suburban areas is developing considerably in metropolitan areas of Europe and North America, branch offices do not act in such a way in Hiroshima. If such a phenomenon would occur, they would suffer not only from teir unprofitable businesses because of less accessibility but also from a shortage of labor because of unfavorable commuting conditions.
4. The managing areas of branch offices in Hiroshima mainly consist of the Chugoku District or its western part (Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Shimane Prefectures); 66 percent of branch offices in wholesale trades and 59 percent of those in producer services occupy the whole area or western part of the Chugoku District as their managing areas, respectively. But in some cases not only the Chugoku but also the Shikoku District belong to their managing areas. They consist of somewhat larger areas compared to the trade areas before the period of the rapid economic growth. Most branch offices usually carry out their intensive business activities within smaller areas than their managing areas, especially in the main urban areas.

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The term“country”is usually recognized with an emotional response. Geographically, the environment of the country consists of farms, open spaces and a mixture of settlements from hamlet level to town level which is be called“country towns”. In this paper, this environment would be called“countryside”.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the characteristics of country towns and the structual change of the“outside edge”of the metropolitan area.
Southern Ontario is the most developed urban region in Canada and one of the most intensive agricultural regions of dairy farming and cornfields. Three villages in Wellington County-Arthur, Elora and Erin-were chosen as typical country towns situated outside the Toronto Metropolitan Area. The following approaches were taken to examine the sample villages and to assess modern country towns and their transformation:
First, the beginning of country towns and their early development were discussed. In the sample villages, the land survey and town planning were carried out in the middle of the nineteenth century, and some manufacturing establishments such as sawmills and gristmills were developed. As the surrounding townships were settled, the sample villages became rural service centers. Each map of the sample villages at that time shows its commercial area on the mainstreet and surrounding residential areas. Since the 1900's, the countryside was influenced by urbanization on the one hand and the enlargement and mechanization of agriculture on the other hand. There was a steady decrease in population of the country towns and the townships in Wellington County till 1941.
Second, the data of migration, industry, occupation and commuting of the sample villages revealed that each country town has its own economic base, and that the daily activity space of residents in the countryside has much more direct relation to country towns than to big cities like Toronto.
Third, the identity of country towns-landscape, land use-was discussed. The insulation from surrounding agricultural areas, the mainstreets, detached houses and community landmarks are four main characteristics of the landscapes of country towns. They were mainly shaped before the beginning of the twentieth century, and are established as distinct images even today. In recent years, the land use and the mainstreet show the coexistence of such traditional landscapes and new landscapes in the automobile and highway era. On the main street, for example, there are old-fashioned brick buildings and modern retail stores.
From these three approaches, the results can be summarized as follows:
From the discussion of the structure of the countryside as the outside of the metropolitan area, there is the existence of a settlement system organized by country towns explained by the concept of the dispersed city proposed by I. Burton. J. F. Hart, and F. A. Dahms, used the term to describe the interdependencies of rural settlements which used be called“dying villages”. They pointed out that some of these settlements had outsized economic functions. The population increase in non-metropolitan areas since the 1950's means There is a positive assessment of the countryside, and suggests a new pattern of urban life.
The uniqueness of country towns is based on their historical background and their scattered networks over the countryside. In addition to the residential function, country towns provide diversified functions such as working places, services and tourist attractions. They are characterized as independent communities. Although the synchronization of old landscapes and new land uses is difficult, the space with interdependent and complementary country towns has great potential for a dispersed new urban environment.

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Administrators concerned with aging and social gerontologists share a growing interest in so-called“familiar areas”, that is, places where the elderly have been living for a long time and have prolonged social relations. Government policies now aim to provide social services based on this concept.
However, there is no clear definition of the concept of“familiar areas”. For example, there is little awareness of the following points: 1) What is the spatial range of the “familiar area”?; 2) What is the basis for this new expectation that the elderly should live and be cared for in“familiar areas”?; and 3) How will the“familiar area”idea, and the residential preferences of the elderly, change in the future?
To clarify these three points, the authors surveyed the spatial range of daily out-of-home activities and social relations of the elderly, which in this research is referred to as life space. Second, the authors asked the elderly whether they expect to continue living in the present place (area). Third, the relationship between the spatial range of the life space and attributes of respondents were examined. For the study area, Koshigaya city, Saitama prefecture, a Tokyo Metropolitan suburb, was selected because of the rapid increase of the elderly there, in combination with great changes in the attributes of the elderly population that appear to be occurring simultaneously. In the survey, a questionnaire for both elderly wives and husbands was employed.
The findings can be summarized as follows:
(1) In the case of two-thirds of the respondents, the life space of the elderly is limited to the local area, including the neighboring cities as well as Koshigaya City. Others visit with some frequency the remainder of the Tokyo Metropolitan area outside Koshigaya City.
(2) Groups with higher academic credentials, professional or clerical careers, and immigration experiences from non metropolitan areas, tend to expand their life space beyond the local area. Therefore, the authors can assume that the changing attributes of the elderly population in the future will be accompanied by an expansion of life space. People who expand their life space beyond the local area tend to develop far fewer connections to their local area. Thus, the authors anticipate a future crisis for the group that lacks local social relations because, as the elderly age, it is difficult to maintain mobility.
(3) Although most elderly persons wish to continue to live in the local area, only about a half of those people who moved to the area in their later days indicate an attachment to the new local area. So, there is no denying a growing tendency for the elderly to either lose or even fail to develop an attachment to the local area, raising questions about their commitment to continue living there.
(4) Consequently, the approach that the elderly should be cared and supported for in a“familiar area”is considered to be a proper one for government policy. It is important for the realization of this policy, however, that in order for it to be effective it must identify a means of nurturing the social relations between the elderly and the environment in which they dwell.

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