Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity

This paper investigates the evolution of the Japanese economy between 1980 and 2010 with regard to the population and industrial structure of cities. With the rural-to-urban transformation settling by the 1970s, Japan experienced the second stage of urbanization through the integration of nearby cit...

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Main Author: Tomoya Mori
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: World Scientific Publishing 2017-08-01
Series:Asian Development Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/adev_a_00096
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author Tomoya Mori
author_facet Tomoya Mori
author_sort Tomoya Mori
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description This paper investigates the evolution of the Japanese economy between 1980 and 2010 with regard to the population and industrial structure of cities. With the rural-to-urban transformation settling by the 1970s, Japan experienced the second stage of urbanization through the integration of nearby cities. This led, on average, to a disproportionately high population growth rate of 24% for a set of core cities during the review period. At the same time, cities experienced substantial changes to their industrial composition: on average, 35% of the manufacturing industries (at the 3-digit level) present in a city in 1980 had left by 2010, while 30% of manufacturing industries located in a city in 2010 had not been present in the same city in 1980. Remarkably, this substantial relocation of populations and industries among cities took place while a simple yet rigid relationship between the size and industrial composition of cities was preserved, characterized by the roughly constant elasticity between the number and average size of cities in which an industry was present. This paper discusses the policy implications of this persistent regularity and the possible underlying mechanisms.
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spelling doaj.art-1355d127c10040398171839504f98fd32022-12-21T18:27:03ZengWorld Scientific PublishingAsian Development Review0116-11051996-72412017-08-013428611310.1162/adev_a_00096adev_a_00096Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent RegularityTomoya Mori0Tomoya Mori: Professor, Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University; and Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. E-mail: mori@kier.kyoto-u.ac.jpThis paper investigates the evolution of the Japanese economy between 1980 and 2010 with regard to the population and industrial structure of cities. With the rural-to-urban transformation settling by the 1970s, Japan experienced the second stage of urbanization through the integration of nearby cities. This led, on average, to a disproportionately high population growth rate of 24% for a set of core cities during the review period. At the same time, cities experienced substantial changes to their industrial composition: on average, 35% of the manufacturing industries (at the 3-digit level) present in a city in 1980 had left by 2010, while 30% of manufacturing industries located in a city in 2010 had not been present in the same city in 1980. Remarkably, this substantial relocation of populations and industries among cities took place while a simple yet rigid relationship between the size and industrial composition of cities was preserved, characterized by the roughly constant elasticity between the number and average size of cities in which an industry was present. This paper discusses the policy implications of this persistent regularity and the possible underlying mechanisms.https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/adev_a_00096agglomerationcentral place theorycity systemspower lawstransport costs
spellingShingle Tomoya Mori
Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
Asian Development Review
agglomeration
central place theory
city systems
power laws
transport costs
title Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
title_full Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
title_fullStr Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
title_full_unstemmed Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
title_short Evolution of the Size and Industrial Structure of Cities in Japan between 1980 and 2010: Constant Churning and Persistent Regularity
title_sort evolution of the size and industrial structure of cities in japan between 1980 and 2010 constant churning and persistent regularity
topic agglomeration
central place theory
city systems
power laws
transport costs
url https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/adev_a_00096
work_keys_str_mv AT tomoyamori evolutionofthesizeandindustrialstructureofcitiesinjapanbetween1980and2010constantchurningandpersistentregularity