Nagoya, which has a population of more than 1, 200, 000 has recently made rapid and remarkable strides, especially in districts where topographical obstacles are slight. This, and other factors, such as land taxes and the particular character of the inhabitants, have restilted in the presence of numerous vacant lots for rebuilding purposes, that were once occupied by houses, both inside the city and out. Consequently, this city gives an impression quite the opposite of a citybuilt closely in comparatively narrow. spaces, like Kôbe and Nagasaki.
It is interesting to find, still, vacant lots and temporary structures at street crossings, even in the most important streets in the central parts of the city. At these crossings, houses are in course of renovation, that is, they are the points where renovations of the city begin, so that the crossings just mentioned contrast sharply with the outskirts of the city, where one notices the tendency in the corners of the crossings to be left vacant for houses to be rebuilt on them later. In view of these features, the author measured the density of houses at each crossing in the important business streets in the whole city, and noted down the results on an map. He was then able to distinguish the districts of 100% occupancy from those below this percentage, with the result Nagoya could be divided into four distinct dis_??_ric_??_s (Fig. 1).
Since street crossiogs with the foregoing marked peculiarity are not strictly limited to business streets, the author took the four districts in the order beginning with the center of the city. Starting with (1) the central business district as the centre, districts (2), (3), and (4) encircled district (1) in the order named, (4) being theoutermost, as shown in the map.
In the western part of the city, these encircling districts are very narrow, as may be explained by the fact that the old Nagoya railway station, which was recently removed westward, was formerly situated having its entrance only to the east.
The part that projects southward may be called the “shipping” street as the result of Atuta, a port, having been annexed to Nagoya. Formerly a narrow line of houses connected Atuta with Nagoya. For this reason, in the southern part, this district is not so central. Consequently, these districts, No. 1 to 4, are, as already mentioned, vertually concentric circles of almost the same area pointing to the existence of a geographic traffic-centering force in this city. The business centres are densely packed with numerous caterers, such as restaurants, bars, cafes, etc.
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