The amount and diversity of public housing densely inhabited by foreigners is increasing across Japan. Since 2000, the population of highly-educated, technically-skilled Chinese in public housing estates has skyrocketed in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This study seeks to investigate the above demographic group by examining the living conditions and community involvement of individuals in two public housing estates: Kawaguchi Shibazono in Saitama and Oshima 4-chome in Tokyo. Based on interviews with ten Chinese residents, it was found that many participants live in employer-assisted public housing and have little intention of settling in public housing. Those in public housing are not generally active in the community, although some are indeed interested in becoming active. Visiting Chinese grandparents played a significant role in child-rearing practices among the sample families, but had little contact with the community.

 Public residential complexes are changing their social role over time according to social change and obsolescence. Such complexes were built throughout Japan to supply houses during the high economic growth period after WWII, and most were built in suburban areas. Although the surrounding areas urbanized later, those complexes still have the characteristics of vast sites with a rich nature. Thus, these complexes have the potential to be an urban hub with a renewed role in the future. However, it can hinder the utilization of these complexes if there is a psychological barrier between complexes and the surrounding areas due to the difference in the urban modality. Therefore, this study aimed to identify current uses and purposes of daily facilities and paths within public residential complexes by their residents and neighbors, and to confirm the important factors for the future utilization of those complexes.

 The authors chose target complexes from Urban Renaissance Agency Complexes in Joto and Johoku Districts in Tokyo, which has many complexes that were integrally planned with urban functions. Then, the authors selected Ojima 6-chome Complex and Hanahata Complex from some preliminary investigations about possible complexes. These complexes were selected based on their distinctive paths and layouts from the preliminary survey. The authors conducted a questionnaire survey of the residents and neighbors of two selected complexes. The questionnaire content included frequency of using paths within complex, using facilities and communicating with other residents, means of communication, the psychological barrier to others, and attributes. The total number of distributed sheets is 8920, of which 489 sheets were obtained (5.5%). The results include partly unanswered surveys.

 Firstly, the authors summarized the differences of attributes and uses of daily facilities and paths within those complexes according to residents and neighbors of those complexes. After that, the authors focus on the psychological barrier between residents and neighbors of each complex. The authors analyzed the relationship between the psychological barrier and other items, and reasons of the psychological barrier. Then, the authors examined the relationship between main items using Speaman’s rank correlation coefficient.

 The result showed that the psychological barrier between the residents and neighbors of the complexes is relatively small though there are differences in the attributes between the residents and neighbors of those complexes. Moreover, it revealed that residents and neighbors use pedestrian paths more frequently than vehicle paths and residents tend to choose parks for places to communicate with others within those complexes. In addition, the frequency of the use of parks within the complexes is affected by the characteristics of the paths, scale of site, and layout of daily facilities. There were differences of the frequency of facilities use within complexes and psychological barrier to others between Ojima Complex and Hanahata Complex. There was a tendency that residents and neighbors of Hanahata complex are more conscious of the boundary between the complex and surrounding area than those of Ojima Complex. The difference of characteristic of circulation is considered a main factor. The findings of this study suggest that public residential complexes can act as urban hubs with psychological harmony with the surrounding areas through the integrated planning of residential buildings, parks, circulation, and daily facilities.