In the mid-1950s, Peter Woroby, a Ukrainian immigrant economist, studied the central place system in southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, as part of a research of rural life in changing Saskatchewan. The research was commissioned by the Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life as a measure by the Saskatchewan Provincial Assembly to solicit recommendations for the reorganization of administrative units and public service areas. This paper considers the report of this commissioned research, Service Centers (Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, Province of Saskatchewan 1957), and Woroby’s master's thesis, which was written using a part of it. In the report, based on the number of types of industries of retail, service, wholesale, and local-oriented manufacturing industries together with other indices, a total of 255 central places were classified as follows: 2 cities (Swift Current and Moose Jaw), 8 greater towns, 26 towns, 65 villages, and 154 hamlets. The service area of each central place by hierarchical level is delimited by certain relatively simple principles such as “the service areas of two neighboring upper-ranked central places are bounded at their intervening lower ranked central place location.” Comparing the central place system thus obtained with the current administrative units and public service areas (rural municipalities, larger school units, agricultural representative districts, and health service divisions), and pointing out the inconsistencies between the two, the report recommended that the current administrative units and public service areas were advisable to be associated with the central place system from the viewpoint of efficient supply of public services. The Province of Saskatchewan partly used these recommendations to adjust the boundaries of larger school units and reorganize agricultural representative districts.

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This paper examines the need for home medical care and the spatial characteristics of a system to support it involving multidisciplinary cooperation, based on a case study of a home medical care team in Kyoto. Urban areas are host to many clinics that show potential for collaboration, but due to previous competitive relationships, it is necessary to build a relationship of trust before beginning collaboration. Therefore, medical associations and home-care support clinics often form grassroots networks based on this trust. At a home-care support clinic located in Kyoto’s Nishikyo Ward, nonphysician personnel, including visiting nurses, care workers, pharmacists, and medical clerks, are paired with physicians to visit patients’ homes and share the workload. The use of medical social media, as recommended by the Kyoto Medical Association, enables teams to identify and respond to problems in a multidisciplinary manner. In addition to this, a specialized team was separately organized to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a home-visit system was put into place in collaboration with the regional core hospital and the inpatient medical control center to address the symptoms of elderly patients recuperating at home. This new ad hoc relationship within and outside the organization are based on a value system that differs from market principles and were effective in meeting the sudden demand due to the pandemic.

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Using small-area demographic statistics, this study evaluates how neighborhoods have changed within core cities of New York and Tokyo from 2010 to 2020. Neighborhood changes are defined as changes in socio-economic typologies over time based on the occupational, educational, and employment status of residents in the neighborhood. An analysis on neighborhood changes in over a tenyear period shows that neighborhoods in New York City changed more than those in Tokyo wards area. Remarkably, both cities exhibit some common attributes. While the overall socio-economic status of neighborhoods has improved as a result of the professionalization of the occupational structure, we can still clearly discern the fixed difference between neighborhoods at the two ends of the socio-economic spectrum. Additionally, there were signs of polarization, such as the fact that growth rates of disadvantaged neighborhoods lagged behind those of middle and advantaged neighborhoods. As far as the spatial patterns of neighborhood changes are concerned, the rise in socioeconomic levels in both cities was concentrated in neighborhood s with well-developed public transportation close to city centers, which is associated with gentrification in such areas.

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Characterisation of landscape in urban and rural settlements of alluvial plains is the objective of a research project we have recently been conducting, some results of which are presented in this article with a focus on the co-penetration between natural and human agents in a complex configuration of local landscapes. The study area defined for the purpose of our research, from the old town of Tsushima city to the Aisai municipality, extends over a vast swampy land with the former Tatsuta Waju (polder) in the centre of it. Four different sites of the area were selected for a field survey centred on the greenery of alluvial plains, closely related to its topographical and hydrological conditions. The results of the survey suggest that the nature we daily experience consists in ‘semi-natural’ environments, in which records of the human intervention in ecological settings of the area are internalised. The article concludes asserting that an important part of landscape sustainability is ensured by a local knowledge shared beyond generations about how to place and integrate humans as part of the ecological foundation of the respective area.

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This paper aims to analyse the change of inner city problems and the consequences of gentrification in Spitalfields, East London. The unemployment rate was decreased from 33.1%(1991) to 8.1%(2021) in this ward. Deteriorated houses were rehabilitated due to the expansions of conservation areas for historic buildings, and affluent people bought those houses and moved into the areas. The ward name of Spitalfields was changed to Spitalfields-Banglatown, and then the area has since been recognised as being Bangladeshi communities. In terms of occupational changes from 2011 to 2021, process, plant, and machine operatives decreased in Spitalfields. Although professional and technical occupations decreased, managers, directors, and senior officials increased in the area. The 2017 index of house prices at the area of Brick Lane was the highest in East London. The buildings of old Spitalfields Market were renovated, becoming a market place for souvenir and cuisine stalls, and the sites in the old Truman Brewery were repurposed for clothes and ethnic cuisine stalls in weekends. Since many tourists visited those places, local food shops were closed and chain hotels were constructed. The character of gentrification, which includes commercial gentrification and tourism gentrification, has been changing in Spitalfields.

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Kenya has been accepting refugees for many years due to its location neighbouring South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. This paper examined the usage of participatory spatial planning in refugee assistance by looking at the case of the Kakuma and Kalobeyei regions in Kenya by clarifying the following four points. Firstly, the paper clarified how there had been an unresolved issue in engaging development assistance in humanitarian lead refugee assistance even though the importance of engaging development partners in humanitarian aid has been recognized for a long time. Secondly, as the targeted region has been facing substantial development challenges due to its geographical and environmental disadvantage, the economic effect of humanitarian assistance to refugees has been taking a large portion of the revitalization of the regional economy. Thus, the paper clarified how there is a gap in benefits between refugees and host communities from humanitarian assistance and how humanitarian aid has been unable to contribute to regional development. Thirdly, the paper clarifies that compared to refugee assistance in Kakuma region, refugee assistance in the Kalobeiyei region has more potential to overcome geographical and environmental disadvantages as Kalobeyei was able to strengthen the relationship between humanitarian assistance plan and regional development plan. The paper further clarifies how having local government-led participatory spatial planning could ease the gap between humanitarian and development assistance. Finally, local government-led participatory spatial planning allows stakeholders to share their ideas, raising issues that stakeholders have at the planning stage. It has been revealed that it will be easier to harmonize with various aid agencies, increase the possibility of easing geographical and environmental disadvantages, and achieve a sustainable economy in the region．

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Recently, the textile production areas, in which develop traditional local industries in Japan, are in the process of significant reduction. In particular, the Kimono production area is in a survival situation due to changes in the demand structure. The Kyoto Nishijin-ori production area, which is a center in Japan in terms of culture and technology, is no exception, and has revealed various problems related to the scale reduction of the production area and the production structure.However, weavers and associated workers that indicate a new direction for the Nishijin-ori production area have also appeared. It is necessary to make sure of the issues and directions for the survival of the production area. This paper studies the trends in the Nishijin-ori production area, which is in a significant shrinking stage, from the standpoint of economic geography , and attempts to organize the issues for future re-investigation.

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[in Japanese]

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This study examines the extent to which traditional Japanese costume is accepted in China by analyzing the motivation, membership, and activity space of a kimono wearers’ club in Shanghai. This was done by analyzing records of the club’s activities, and by gathering information from its members by means of interviews and questionnaires. The club’s activities were mainly focused on experiences and cultural exchanges related to kimonos and other aspects of Japanese culture, but also include many opportunities to learn how kimonos are worn in practice and the etiquette associated with it. The reason for this is that some people are interested in acquiring “proper” knowledge of the design and wearing of kimonos that are not known in traditional Chinese costume such as hanfu. The characteristics of the spaces in which this club operated show that while the content and location of their activities were restricted due to the deterioration of international relations between China and Western countries and the spread of the coronavirus during the survey period, there was also a tendency for the club to commercialize its activities. Although the club members are conscious of their desire to wear kimonos with the “authenticity” that has traditionally existed in Japan, it is also difficult for them to find suitable places to wear kimonos in China. In this regard, the club is trying to form a space for its activities in cooperation with groups involved with other facets of Japanese culture such as the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and Japanese archery. However, most of the club’s meetings were held in an ordinary commercial building in the city center. Another characteristic of the club is that their activity spaces were formed in connection with places and events that are not necessarily part of Japan’s historical culture, such as Disneyland, Christmas, and Halloween.

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This paper analyzes the status and evaluation of historical tourism resources in Huangshan City, Anhui Province, China, based on a questionnaire survey of 172 tourists. In addition, it discusses how conscious the residents are of tourism and the branding of the city name, based on interviews with 24 local residents. Within Huangshan City is the Huangshan Scenic Area, a world-renowned natural tourism resource, and tourism development is taking advantage of that. On the other hand, this city also has valuable historical tourism resources, collectively called “Huizhou Culture”. However, the historical tourism resources in this region have dropped out of the limelight due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution and the renaming of the city from Huizhou to Huangshan in 1987. Looking at the results of the questionnaire survey of tourists conducted in an area where there are many historical tourism resources, their evaluation of Huizhou culture is not low, but it is not as high as for the Huangshan Scenic Area, a global tourism resource. As such, it can be argued that the local government's low interest in historical tourism resources and their management are problematic. However, with the development of tourism, the residents are increasingly interested in local historical tourism resources, and many share the opinion that the city name should be changed back to Huizhou City. This dichotomy in the evaluation of Huizhou culture as a tourism resource creates a gap in the appreciation of the region and tourism between the government and residents. It is found that not only those engaged in tourism, but also many people who predominantly work outside the sector, have knowledge of and an interest in historical tourism resources and reverting the city to its former name. On the other hand, judging from the places where tourists come from and their other sightseeing purposes, there is the impression that the number of tourists is increasing due to the existence of the Huangshan Scenic Area, a more popular tourism resource. Therefore, the perceptions and comments of local residents regarding tourism and nostalgia for the city’s former name are not only in the economic context of the historical and cultural heritage as a tourist resource but also psychological factors such as their attachment to the region.

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