The Journal of Population Studies

In this paper are described the trends of mobility and flows of not only the internal migration of population but also the commutation of population between the place of residence and the place of work or school, the latter of which has rarely been treated in the field of demography, for the postwar period untill the early 1990, using chiefly the statistics from the national population censuses and the basic resident registers. The main discussions are made not only upon the changes in the patterns of migratory flows between metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions or within a metropolitan region in internal migration, but also upon the association between internal migration and commutation of population within a metropolitan region, in particular, within Tokyo metropolitan region.

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There is a rising crisis-consciousness in Japan that the decline of fertility rates may result in retarding a healthy social development. Two things can account for this declining fertility rates : the value of having a child have changed ; the cost of raising a child have soared. Nevertheless, in considering the prosperity of future society resting upon children, the greater responsibility should be taken to meet the increasing demand for the number of children. The study was done accordingly to decide whether it was feasible to regard a child as public goods or social goods instead of private goods as in the past. The supply of some goods left to the market principle, the optimum number to the market may not be attained from a social point of view. In case the supply is unstablized, it is possible to compensate the shortage with the externality upon which a public policy relies. In Japan, if the domestic household market principle can decide the number of children for each family to have, there may be a chance of not fulfilling the adequate numbers of children needed for the society. Of course it is debatable to look on a child as pure public goods. However, in reflecting upon the value of having a child for the future society or the collective benefit from having a child ... etc, the rationality exists that parts of the cost of a child birth and a child raising should be paid publicly. Therefore, structuring the social system should be aimed at which will make possible, to certain extent, the financial support from a society.

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