An outline of the geographical work of Edgar Kant, who contributed to the formation of the Lund School of Geography, has been discussed by Buttimer (1987, 1994, 2000) and Kurs (1992). Alternatively, this paper considers his central place study of Estonia in the 1930s (Kant 1935), focusing on its characteristics, scientific influence, and application, which has not yet been examined in detail.

In Kant (1935), central places are hierarchically classified into five levels, using a centrality index of workers in the secondary and tertiary industries representing the nonfarm population. The hinterlands of the main central places are approximately demarcated on the basis of (theoretical) agricultural marketing regions (Fig. 3) delimited by Maide (1931), because the marketing region of Tartu seems to have been roughly equivalent to its nearby hinterland which Kant actually surveyed.

Macroscopically, the central place distribution in prewar Estonia was in harmony with population density, which was closely related to agricultural productivity reflecting the topographical conditions of the lowlands and the highlands. The country was covered by the two hinterlands of Tallinn and Tartu, the most highly ranked central places (Fig. 2). It is suggested that both subsystems of the central places of Narva and Kressarre, situated outside of the hinterlands of Tallinn and Tartu, could independently exist under the continuing influence of the framework of the regional administrative system of the former Russian Empire.

The central place study of Kant is characterized by a methodology to analyze the central place distribution in terms of a concentric structure: mainly lower-ranked central places surround the middle- and higher-ranked ones; outside the ring-shaped distribution of lowerranked ones are mainly middle-ranked central places that are circularly located around the higher-ranked ones. The former distribution area is approximately equivalent to the hinterland of the middle-ranked central places, the latter, that of higher-ranked ones.

This methodology confirmed the above concentric structure in the central place distribution of Estonia, as well as revealing the fact that a portion of the hexagonal locational pattern of the central places was observed in the area covering the hinterlands of Tartu, Viljandi, Valga, and Võru. The fundamental structure of central place distribution was formed after the mid-1800s, when Estonia belonged to the Russian Empire. Kant’s understanding that traffic towns and railway-station settlements would grow after the subsequent openings of railways, and would therefore influence the concentric structure of central place distribution, seems to be based on his expectation that a central place system chiefly formed according to the market principle would be gradually transformed by the traffic principle.

In terms of “central place studies”, Kant (1935) adding the industrial population to the centrality index may seem inadequate, even if there still existed in Estonia many handicrafts, where manufacturing and selling were undifferentiated and their products were sold in local markets. Kant (1935) was influenced by Bobek (1927) prompting the functional turn of urban geography. However, Kant made good use of central place theory proposed by Christaller (1933) as an effective framework to deal with the system of urban settlements, which is clear if Kant’s work (1935) is compared with the explanation on Estonian towns developed in his earlier paper (Kant 1932: 471-479), published in Annales de Géographie, where only the characteristics of the major towns are described without any explanation of their hinterlands. However, by introducing the framework of central place theory, it became possible to consider the entire Estonian urban settlements as a well-organized system.

This paper reveals a portion of the role that studios play in fostering a creative culture in Tokyo metropolitan area. To do this, the study focuses on the working environment and the job search activity of workers in the animation industry as an agglomeration in

Tokyo. The animation industry is well known both inside and outside Japan as a Japanese cultural construct. On the other hand, the real configuration of its workers is not as well known.

Workers in the animation industry are categorized into two types according to the production divisions to which they belong: directors or creators. Workers with different expertise work simultaneously in the studios and, if required, meetings can be scheduled at any moment with other workers in other roles.

While creators work mainly within the studio, the activities of directors are not limited to the premises. The tasks taken on by the directors often take them outside the studio, while creators are inbound, drawing pictures on desks installed inside the studios. Directors manage production schedules and negotiate with workers belonging to other studios. They are frequently seen coming and going to different studios with products and information. The activities of both creators and directors are sustained by various amenities and infrastructures accorded by the studios. These include napping facilities, supermarkets, and restaurants, which are open round the clock and located around the studios. People in the animation industry can work regardless of the time of day or night by using these services provided by studios and the metropolis. Animation workers build personal relationships with other workers as they go about their production activities. They use these human networks to advance their careers when they move to another studio.

In this respect, the studios play the role of a “creative nexus” for workers in the animation industry. The networks that are built by this creative nexus that is seen developing in the western suburb of Tokyo sustain the creativity of this industry.

Urban development that revives a declining area sometimes eliminates people who are socioeconomically weak. This paper examines the elimination of socioeconomically vulnerable people in the case of Pearl District. Regarded as the norm for urban regeneration, the population in the district has been remarkably increased in Portland City. Given an affordable housing supply target of 35%, the target value of 26% was not reached in 2014. On the other hand, vacant rooms have decreased due to rapid population increase, and rents have soared, and the number of homeless increased. In securing a diversity of residents in Pearl District, the numbers of experts, technicians, and managerial personnel increased remarkably, and the median household income also increased accordingly. As for artistic activities, it was also confirmed that artists for whom a living space or activity place could not be obtained left for Detroit. In this way, Pearl District has been transformed into an area where wealthy people live, excluding socioeconomically vulnerable people.

The article examines the influence of the Children’s community Development Fund of Kochi city on the children’s interaction with people and the expansion of their areas of activity through their participation in community development. The study demonstrates that children’s participation in community development is linked to them associating positive meanings with geographical places in which they experience inter-generational interactions triggered by their activity. Since for children, community development implies interaction with people, they actively visit various places including communities familiar to them. Connecting with people and places that they have never visited before expands the places that they can be actively aware of. Meanwhile, adults who assist them with their activities value children’s desire and potentialities to improve their community life, and this is precisely why productive relationships that go beyond their social status and generation can be nurtured. In addition, community development by children encourages interaction among the many people involved in the activity.

Although urban geography studies in Japan have focused on urban spatial structure, particularly residential differentiation by social groups, there has been much less concern regarding ethnic or racial segregation, compared with that in Western countries. This paper aims to review the existing studies on the relationship between ethnic minorities in Japan and urban space and attempts to evaluate the importance of the phenomenon related to ethnic segregation in the Japanese context. Considering the overview of the existing studies, the trends in segregation studies in Japan can be roughly divided into the following three aspects in terms of the historical change in ethnic population during and after the 20th century; studies in modern urban history, urban community studies, and research on migrants under the globalization.

First, with respect to modern urban history, considerable studies, including history, have treated the population concentration of migrants from former Japanese colonies as an important part of metropolitan areas in Japan. However, these studies have tended to overlook the succession of segregation derived from the drastic decrease of ethnic migrants after World War II. Second, urban community studies, particularly those based on the Chicago school sociology, have paid significant attention to the changes in urban space, caused mainly by domestic migration from rural to urban areas. While some researchers have noticed the existence of ethnic minorities in this process, few efforts have been made to investigate the areal differentiation related to the population of these minorities. Third, after the 1990s, studies in social and human sciences, including those in geography, have increasingly focused on the growth in the number of international migrants in Japan due to globalization and Japanese immigration policy reform. At the same time, studies focusing on ethnic segregation have remained inactive, despite the growing concerns about migrants from abroad.

As for the ethnic population in Japan, there is a clear cleavage between the migrants from colonies under the Japanese imperial regime and the residents from foreign countries under globalization. This cleavage is typically reflected in the absence of studies from the end of World War II to the 1990s. Therefore, it is crucially important to investigate the urban space formed by these migrants from a longitudinal perspective. Moreover, one of the features in Japanese urban structure can be marked by the juxtaposition or overlap of newly-arrived foreigners and migrants before World War II. In other words, the urban processes in Japan seem to be characterized by not only globalism but also (post-)colonialism in terms of Japan’s immigration history. Thus, ethnic segregation studies can possibly contribute to these research challenges in the future.

Japan is experiencing severe pressure from an aging population and a rapid population decline. Consequently, the quality of life for seniors is deteriorating. Notably, difficulties with shopping have grown not only in rural areas but also in urban areas. The inner areas of cities have been described as food deserts, but nearly the same phenomenon is happening in demographically and economically declining suburbs due to the spatial contraction of cities’ areas. One promising solution to support the shopping convenience of seniors is online shopping. Unfortunately, the elderly are known to have much more difficulty with online shopping than the non-elderly.

We explore the current environments of day-to-day shopping and actual shopping behaviors in declining suburbs to discuss shopping support services for seniors as well as online shopping. As a target area, we chose the suburb of Minami Ward in Hamamatsu City, an industrial city with a population of 800,000 and spatially over-extended suburbs.

Based on our analysis of people’s accessibility to shops, areas of deteriorated shopping opportunities were identified in the peripheral areas of the suburbs. The percentage of people with absolutely no shop in theri own areas was 13%. According to our

questionnaire given to people in the peripheral areas of these suburbs, two thirds of the respondents described daily shopping as inconvenient. Only half of them used shopping support services such as delivery service or free-charged bus service to large shopping centers. Moreover, roughly 70% of senior-generation respondents reported that they have never purchased anything online. They mentioned security concerns over using the Internet and felt anxious about credit card payment systems. If seniors could receive effective support services for online shopping from public institutions or NPOs, they might feel comfortable making a portion of their day-to-day purchases online in the near future.

There are many industrial clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in the city of Wenzhou, China, including those of the garment industry. As some of the most distinctive Marshallian industrial clusters, they are widely followed by researchers. Despite Wenzhou being one the most well-known regions of the garment industry in China, changes in the business environment such as the increase in labor costs and the rise in land prices have imposed constraints on its corporate network that has played a significant role in the formation of industrial clusters. Therefore, changes in the business environment have made a crucial impact on s such areas the influence of industrial clusters, and the development of their functions within the course of corporate network changes. This thesis takes the garment industry of Wenzhou as the case study, collects and analyzes various resources and statistics, and interviews 23 SME owners and leaders of various businesses. The conclusion is the intensification of competition among SMEs has caused negative impacts on the corporate network due to the increasing cost of both land and labor. The benefits of operating a business within the industrial cluster are, more opportunities to meet potential business partners in the region, and being able to take full advantage of the growing brand power of Wenzhou by setting up headquarters, and even research and development, design and sales departments in the city.

With the progress of urbanization, modern housing landscapes have become more common, and traditional-style houses have been rapidly disappearing. Local governments throughout the country have come to show an interest in things like ‘traditional landscape’, ‘community landscape planning’, and ‘landscape formation’ during the 2000s. Now, ‘landscape formation’ is recognized as an effective policy tool. However, little research exists on landscape from the point of view of residents. I chose the city of Higashihiroshima as the location for this study. This area has a unique landscape of traditional Japanese houses with reddish-brown roof shingles and white walls scattered in rural paddy-field districts, and it is recognized by residents for its individual landscape. I interviewed residents living in urbanization control areas and housing estates to examine their concerns about changing landscapes. I asked questions about the exterior of their houses and how they feel about traditional landscapes. Results showed that most residents feel the traditional landscape is acceptable and want to keep traditional-style houses, but are reluctant to build their own homes in the traditional fashion. As people have broad choice in regard to building materials, Japanese-style houses are not chosen any more, and people tend to base their housing choices on individualism and the economy. Some residents think landscape regulation is unnecessary because houses are personal property.