The Land Conversion Process Due to Landowners' Land-Use Decisions in the Rural-Urban Fringe of Maebashi City

Geographical Review of Japan Vol. 76, No. 5, 349-366, 2003 The Land Conversion Process due to Landowners' Land-Use Decisions in the Rural-Urban Fringe of Maebashi City TSUTSUMI Jun Faculty of Law and Letters, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-8577, Japan Abstract: This paper concerns the land conversion process in the rural-urban fringe of Maebashi city, a medium sized city in Japan. The author investigated land-use change , land ownership change, and landowners' land-use decisions. Land ownership change was examined from 1980 to 1993 using land assessment data from the Maebashi municipal office . The information about landowners' land-use decisions was obtained by interviewing selected landowners. The landowners in the sample area made land-use decisions based on two types of factors, called initial and decision factors. The initial factors were land re-adjustment , land inheritance, need for a larger income, request to sell their land, and failure of a non-agricultural business. The decision factors were the existence of their successors in agriculture, payment of inheritance tax, intention to keep farming, possession of land with good access to roads and their desire to utilize the land. Based on their decisions, their behavior can be divided into three categories: land utilization, transaction (or sale), and abandonment. Traded land was converted to urban use, such as housing, parking or shops; and was scattered throughout the area . Utilized land was converted by the owners themselves; and was distributed along the main roads leading to central Maebashi, close to the owners' houses. Utilized and traded land were based on different decisions by the landowners. Much of the land in the inner fringe is in demand. Thus, both land being utilized and land being traded tended to be converted to urban use. Key words: land conversion, inner fringe, land ownership, land-use decision, land inheritance tween several types of land-use. Introduction In general, there have been a large number of land-use studies, particularly on issues that con As a city grows, urban land demand in cern how rural areas change under high pres creases, because some centrifugal functions, sure of urbanization. The spread of urban land such as factories and residences, move from use extended into rural areas, gradually giving the central area to the suburbs; and some cen rise to land-use conflict between rural and ur tripetal functions, such as commercial and ban land. In general, although the proportion of office activities, move into the built-up area. part-time farmers expanded steadily, most of Therefore in the central area of the city, due to the farmers had a tendency to spare their farm high demand of urban land, we often find many land as much as possible. Conversely, some high-rise buildings, and an increasing number farmers reduced their proportion of land dedi of parking lots in transitional land-use (i.e., to be cated to farming, and instead turned to renting converted to urban use in the immediate fu their properties for apartment houses, parking ture). In addition, we can also find general lots, and so on (Fukuhara 1971; Nagashima tendencies of land-use change from rural to 1972; Harada 1976). Moreover, in a body of urban and of land-ownership change from literature on the conversion of prime land to farmer to non-farmer in the rural/urban fringe urban land through an Application Roll for Ur area. Thus, the built-up area of the city ex ban Development (nouchi-tenyo), regional char pands outward as a result of competition be acteristics of land-use change were also ana- 349 102 TSUTSUMI J. lyzed (Takahashi 1977). decisions for land-use and for farming manage During the 1960s and early 70s, rapid indus ment). trialization occurred in Japan, causing conflict In the 1980s, there were strong arguments for between rural and industrial land-use. In this incorporating behavioral approaches into geo period, factory location in agglomerated areas graphical studies (Bryant et al. 1982; Golledge formed a striking contrast with that in the and Stimson 1987). Especially land-ownership small local cities; capital-intensive divisions re was emphasized as important because it was a mained in highly industrialized areas, while la suitable index for the degree of urban influence bor-intensive divisions dispersed into rural ar (Pond and Yeates 1993, 1994a, 1994b). Other eas. Small local cities were characterized by an sample studies following the behavioral ap influx of factories from large companies based proach include Tanaka (1982), who investi in big cities. When a factory moved to a rural gated the urban growth process from the view area, much farmland was replaced not only by a point of how the farmers transferred their land factory itself but also by company houses, wel ownership, using a case study of Mitaka city in fare facilities, and shops attached to the factory the western suburbs of Tokyo. Nakamura (Takahashi 1968). Recently land-use issues (1995) focused on the farmers' recognition have come to be investigated in terms of legal processes to choose crops which were most suit regulations such as the impact of the Urban able for particular natural conditions. Pyle Planning Act.1 These studies provide good ex (1986, 1989) analyzed the decision-making amples that identify the main factors of land process of landowners and revealed that their use change, but they do not explain the process decisions were closely related to shape patterns of land-use change. of land-use. Ganderton (1994) also analyzed the Undoubtedly, there are many factors that relationship between spatial pattern of land-use cause land-use change. It would be more appro and land-use decisions of landowners, and the priate to consider urbanization as the context of characteristics of decision-making processes of multiple causes. Kikuchi2 analyzed interactions landowners. Tsutsumi (1999) investigated the between several factors affecting urban land land conversion process in the CBD of Maebashi use change by using sample areas situated in city from the viewpoint of changing roles of different zones in the Auckland metropolitan decision agents in an urban land market. These region in New Zealand. In a series of studies, he studies were notable examples of the behav regarded development stages and the different ioral approach. strength of potential urbanization forces in the From these general observations, this paper same metropolitan region as important. In one attempts to analyze the land conversion sample area situated close to the built-up area process at a micro level by investigating the of Auckland where urban pressure was high, decision-making processes of landowners in the definite conversion to urban land-use was iden rural/urban fringe area of Maebashi city. tified due to increased interactions between It is a medium-sized city in Japan (Figure 1) such factors. In another sample area situated in with a population of approximately 280,000 in the city's countryside, most of the agricultural 2000. The trends in population decentraliza land-uses were sustained, although the area tion and associated rural land-use changes have was under urban pressure. Kikuchi's works been similar to those of other cities of almost were noteworthy because he tried to synthesize the same size in population. That means Mae a number of factors such as urbanization, bashi is a typical medium-sized city with one change in farming management, innovations in core built-up area. farming, land-ownership change, regulations, Many of the residential estates in Maebashi and increase of urban newcomers in the origi were developed by land re-adjustment pro nal rural communities (konjuka)3, which were grams. Land re-adjustment programs are un usually treated separately in previous studies. dertaken either by public housing associations However, the studies were insufficient in that (e.g., prefectural or city housing associations), they did not address behavioral factors (e.g., or government institutions. One of the most 350 The Land Conversion Process 103 Figure 1. Study area in 1995. notable features of the housing policy in Mae which accounts for 40.5% of the ADFU. When bashi is that most land re-adjustment was un partially developed works are completed, the dertaken by the Maebashi Municipal Office it total developed area will increase to 2,532 ha self. In general, land re-adjustment works con (54.7% of the ADFU), placing greater pressure stitute 40% of total housing, which has tended on rural areas. The areas currently under de to be easily converted to urban use. velopment are situated in the rural-urban A proportion of land developed under re fringe areas in the southern, south-eastern, adjustment works to the total `Area Designated northern, and western suburbs. for Urbanization' (shigaika-kuiki) (simply, First of all, the author examined the outline ADFU) is almost 50% in Maebashi city, which of the urbanization process for the city by using ranks as one of the highest in Japan.4 The first Digital Land Information to select a sample work on land re-adjustment in Maebashi was area for micro-level analysis. In order to obtain restoration from damage caused during World land-ownership data, land assessment rolls War II. Most of the built-up area seen today is were used. The Property Tax Division of Mae a result of this work. After the General Urban bashi City Hall houses the rolls that are cross Plan of Maebashi was decided in 1957, one of referenced with the data at Maebashi's Legal the important issues in the city's development, Affairs Bureau (homukyoku). By using the rolls, several land re-adjustment works were taken it was possible to compile an array of informa up in the suburbs surrounding the already de tion about land-ownership including the name veloped built-up area.

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