Geographical Review of Japan Vol. 81, No. 5, 279-291, 2008

A Critical Review of Recent Urban Social Geography in Japan

TAIRA Atsushi Faculty of Education, Kagawa University, Takamatsu 760-8522, Japan

Abstract: This article aims to explore the progress and the agenda of urban social geography in Japan. Urban geography in Japan has a long history, but studies of cities fromsocial aspects have increased in earnest, rather recently. One factor is that Japanese geographers have been at- tracted mainly by changing patterns of the urban landscape and its economic functions . However, recent decades have seen a diversification of themes of research from gentrification, socio-polit- ical movements and social stratification, community restructuring with demographic changes, life- world of ethnic minorities to gender matters. The future agenda of urban social geography in Japan would be to deepen the research contents and to explore new frontiers along with theo- retical advancement.

Key words: urban social geography, urban community, social stratification, urban politics, urban ethnicity

It is fair to say that Suitsu (1964, new edition Introduction in 1980) was a pioneer of social geography of Japan. He investigated the living space (seikatsu Urban geography has a long history in Japan. kuukan), especially that of rural areas in differ- It is evident from the fact that to date, a variety ent places of the world (North America, Europe, of text books on urban geography have been and Japan). In his analysis of living space, he published (Kiuchi 1951, 1979; Yajima 1956; confirmed the existence of the "fundamental re- Yamaga 1964; Tanabe and Watanabe eds. 1985; gion" (kiso chiiki) and examined its size, func- Takahashi et al. 1984, 1997; Hayashi 1991a, b, tion, structure and evolution. Later, Saito (1982) 1995, Hasegawa et al. 1992). These text books, studied social geography in the urban context however, have put emphasis on economic aspects with an emphasis on urban development. Fol- of cities, so that social matters of urban areas lowing the sections which examined basic con- have not been fully investigated. This is also the cepts of social geography, particularly those of case with Abe, K. (2003), which reviewed Japan- previous West Germany, such as human society ese urban geography in the 20th century. For a and space, urban areas in the north-west of the long time, Japanese geographers have not been country and Japan's Kansai metropolitan area particularly interested in spatial stratification of (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area) were investigated in Japanese society due to an `idea' that social seg- terms of its spatial structure and the moving pat- regation was not so evident in Japan. It is a terns of residents. rather recent phenomenon that research on so- Recent decades have seen an emerging inter- cial and community movements in urban areas, ests in (urban) social geography, partially influ- urban ethnography, urban politics, and gender- enced by "spatial turn" of other academic fields related matters in the urban context from geo- such as sociology, cultural studies and architec- graphical perspectives has grown in number. This ture. A geographical magazine entitled "Chin" article aims to explore the progress and the ("geography" in Japanese) prepared a number of agenda of urban social geography in Japan special articles on social geography from 1993 to mainly from the 1980s. The decade from 1980 1994, in which Japanese geographers discussed was a turning point for the Japanese society in the problems and agenda of social geography in terms of local-global context. Japan as partially introduced above. The De-

-279- 34 TAIRA A. partment of Geography of Osaka City University so-called "social area analysis" conducted by is one of the significant centers of Japanese so- three sociologists, Shevky, Williams and Bell in cial geography and has been publishing a series 1949 and 1955 attracted many geographers' at- of journals called "Kukan, shakai, chin shiso" tention. This time was the beginning of a theo- (Space, society, and geographic thought), in- retical revolution, often called "paradigm shift" cluding a book entitled "Shakai kukan kenkyu or "quantitative revolution," came to start , re- no chihei"(A frontier of study of social space) sponding to a claim of "geography's exceptional- on social geography since 1996. And the De- ism" by Shcaefer in 1953. Theoretical research partment of Geography of Hitotsubashi Univer- fashion based on logical positivism spread first in sity in Tokyo has also been contributing to ad- the United States and the United Kingdom in the vance Japan's social geography. A book titled 1950s, especially among young scholars who "Toshi , kuukan, kenryoku" (City, space, au- began to use computer, a new analytical device, thority) edited by Takeuchi (2001) is a recent which came to be available to university re- outcome. At the same time, Aramaya and Oshiro searchers (Johnston 1991). Later, the revolution co-edited a book of social geography "Kuukan also reached Japan and attracted not a few kara bashoe" (From space to place) in 1998, scholars and quantitative research grew in num- which explored a variety of topics about space ber from the 1970s (Tezuka 1988). Radical ge- and society. All contributors to this book were ography, which dates back to the 1930s, and hu- under 40 at the time of publication, and this in- manistic studies have also played a role in dicates that in Japan, young scholars are playing Japanese geography (Sakamoto and Hamatani an important role in the current (urban) social 1985). But unlike the United States and the geography. "Kuukan no shakai chin" (Social United Kingdom (Johnston 1991), theoretical geography of space) edited by Mizuuchi in 2004 and methodological discussion in Japan has not and "Toshi kuukan no chirigaku" (The geog- appeared so brisk until the early 1990s. raphy of urban space) co-edited by Kato and Even among those Anglo-Saxon countries, Oshiro in 2006 are the most recent encouraging however, it is possible to say that social geogra- works in this field. phy is still a developing sub-field of geography. In this article, followed by two brief sections As Carter and Jones (1989) and Pacione (1987) on theoretical discussion and on the recent have claimed, the agenda and methodology of so- urban scene in Japan, studies on urban residen- cial geography has continued expanding without tial characteristics with remarks on community a clear and solid core. On the one hand, hu- will be discussed. Next, those on broadly-defined manistic geographers have been putting empha- political matters, including gender, related to sis on human perception and experiences in urban society will be examined. And finally, urban everyday life, and on the other, geogra- those on urban ethnicity, which has attracted an phers taking political-economy approach claim increasing number of Japanese geographers, will the importance of socio-economic structure be taken into consideration, followed by con- which affects human behavior in the urban area. cluding remarks on the future agenda of the As a representative scholar in the former camp, field. Due to space restrictions, the main review Ley (1983) has said that urban geography is a focus will be on previous studies about urban geography of human experiences and has in- areas in Japan which have been published in sisted on the critical viewpoint from the ground Japanese geographical journals. where people live; while Carter and Jones, rep- resentative scholars in the latter camp, have de- Theoretical and Methodological fined (urban) social geography, drawing on Har- Discussion vey (1973), as an academic field which deals with the spatial expression of various systems, Urban social geography first developed in the which give rise to social problems such as racial Anglo-Saxon countries, represented by the discrimination and poverty, and as a field which United States and the United Kingdom, from the addresses itself to the active role of space in 1950s (Knox 1982; Carter and Jones 1989). The those social structures.

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So far, in Japanese social geography , social in 1985 affected Japan's economy and urban de- space, human group and spatial behavior have velopment negatively. However , the late 1980s been basic keywords. According to Saito (1982: saw an economic surge. The discussion about the 61), social space is a general term for the dis- global city at that time upgraded Tokyo into a tribution and spatial behavior of all the human major world city along with New York and Lon- groups in a region; the human group is a large don (Friedmann 1986; Sassen 1991) . But it did number of people or households who perform not last very long and evaporated like the "bub- the same or similar spatial behavior; spatial be- ble" and Japan experienced a long stagnant pe- havior is perception, selection, and behavior of riod, the so-called "lost decade ." individuals or households related with the use of Now, Japan's society is in a watershed. In 2005 place and space. Also, he defines social geogra- its total population began to shrink for the first phy as a field of geography which studies the time since World War II. This population change space of human groups and the forms of social is due to its aging society with more aged peo- space, and their relation to the environment ple and less children: the share of persons above (Saito, 1982: 62). As Shimazu (1993) has argued, 65 years old surpassed 20 percent of the total however, social space is originally an ambiguous population, and that of children under 15 was word even in the geographical context: broadly only 13.6 percent (11.6 percent in Tokyo and it means the geographical space as a whole 13.8 percent in Osaka) as of April 1st, 2007. which is socially produced, built and organized, In the post-bubble stagnant period, Tokyo and and narrowly it is the geographical space clipped a limited number of urban centers such as as the place of life in which a certain social Nagoya, however, enjoyed relative growth. The group resides. At the same time, Mizuoka (1993) decrease in the land price, and closure and re- has demonstrated a unique view about social location of manufacturing plants made it possi- space from the radical geography perspective. ble for real-estate agents and developers to con- Mizuoka has argued for the relations between ab- struct new commercial and residential buildings solute space and relative space, and has insisted in central Tokyo. And those newly-built apart- that social space embedding the uneven built en- ments, which are mainly high-rise and relatively vironment inside is produced on the ground cheap, have been successful in attracting good through negation of the physical space. Mizuoka numbers of residents, both young and post-re- is sharply critical of the Japanese human geog- tirement. This new trend has led to the re-ur- raphy as sticking to its old tradition and he em- banization of Tokyo, called "toshin kaiki" in phasizes the academic position of social geogra- Japanese (Miyazawa and Abe 2005). phy as a social science.' It might be true that On the contrary, a majority of provincial cities Japanese geographers have not had vigorous ar- have suffered from economic stagnation and a gument on theory building. But it is possible to slowing down in their population growth (some- say that multiplicity of research viewpoints and times negatively). Especially, small-sized cities methods helps to develop geography as an aca- are struggling to survive in this era of the shrink- demic field. ing state. The city of Yubari in central Hokkaido went bankrupt in 2006 mainly due to its bad Recent Urban Scene in Japan budget management, but the aging of the popu- lation also contributed to its shrinking tax rev- After World War II, particularly in the 1960s, enue and to an increase in social welfare costs. Japan experienced rapid urbanization. Major This example is not an exceptional case. Many metropolitan areas, especially the Tokyo area, small cities and municipalities might face the grew rapidly with the influx of a large number of same undesirable fate unless effective measures young people seeking better educational oppor- are taken by the central and prefectural govern- tunities and jobs. The double oil crises in 1973 ments. and 1979 slowed down Japan's economic growth and urbanization processes. Also, the rapid ap- preciation of the yen after the "Plaza Agreement"

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cal changing character in the way of living along Urbanization and Suburbanization, with urbanization and later with the aging of so- and Changes of Residential ciety is an increase of single dwellers. Concern- Characteristics ing population structure and its changes, Na- ganuma (2003) has examined the relationship Urbanization has changed the landscape and between residency changes and aging population its land use patterns, which have attracted much in Tokyo, claiming that unrealistic land-related of the attention of Japanese geographers so far. restrictions and the difference in life styles be- A variety of studies have been conducted in tween the first and second generations make it urban areas. For example, Tsutsumi (1996) has difficult to perform effective housing renewal. examined changing land-use patterns in trading Nishi (2005) has examined aging processes of through a micro scale analysis of the central part single elderly persons and their housing issues in of the city of Nagano, located in central Japan, her case study in central Tokyo. At the same and later Tsutsumi (2003) analyzed the land con- time, Yui and Yano (2000) have discussed resi- version processes based on landowners' decisions dency problems of single-parent families, mainly in a case study in the rural-urban fringe of the women-headed families, with relation to avail- city of Maebashi in Gunma Prefecture, north of ability of welfare facilities for them in Tokyo. Tokyo.2 Tsutsumi has claimed that there is a dif- They have found that most single-parent families ferent trading and land-use pattern between the are women-headed, and that the mother has a central business district and its surrounding area tendency to migrate to an urban area in order to due to the urban land-use potential at the site. cope with her heavy duties, such as getting a job The urban landscape is also considered as a and child care, and also in order to be free from built-up environment, which houses residents in- prejudices of nearby residents. It is suggestive side it. Kato (1999) has made a critique of post- that scarcity of public housing is contributing to modern geography and its interpretation of cities place women-headed single families in more dif- drawing on Harvey and Sojas' works (Harvey ficult conditions. 1989; Soja 1989). Kato is wisely suggesting two Another typical character of urban residency directions for a postmodern geography of the is a rapid increase in the number of apartments modernist gaze on the urban condition: the pol- and apartment complexes in the outer ring of the itics of representation and that of scale. In con- metropolitan regions represented by that of cluding remarks, Kato has said that if we place Tokyo (Tama New town, west of Tokyo) and the critiques of the modernist gaze as a Osaka (Senri New town, north of Osaka) built in voyeuristic' way of seeing the city, then it would' the 1970s. Now that the people living there are be possible to have a paradigm shift in human getting old after decades of residency, the resi- geography. However, geo-philosophical analysis dent composition of those apartments and apart- of Japanese cities, including those from radical ment complex is also changing. Yui (1991a, b, perspectives, are in few in number and need to 1993) has examined the increasing average age be conducted more vigorously in the future.3 of residents in public housing and differentiation Along with transformation of the hard charac- of residents according to the types of housing teristics of Japanese cities, their soft sides, that supply through case studies of Fukuoka, the is, the society embedded in the built environ- largest city of Kyushu, a southern main island, ments, has also experienced changes. To date, and Hiroshima. We need more case studies, not changing residential characteristics in the con- only in large cities but also in small and middle- text of urbanization have attracted much of the sized cities, to take measures against the prob- focus of Japanese geographers. One of the rea- lem. sons for this tendency is the fact that residency Expansion of urban space has caused a social is a visible feature of (urban) human life. And mixing in the urban-fringe area between original another reason is the fact that the Japanese way countryside residents and new urban dwellers, of living has dramatically changed after the rapid called "konjuka" in Japanese. The 1990s saw an economic growth period in the 1960s. One typi- increase in the number of studies tackling the

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mechanism of this social mix . For example, Sawa witnessing a returning population of both young (1990) and Furuta (1990) have explained con- and old to the downtown areas not only in the tinuing processes of "konjuka" in a case study major metropolitan areas (for example , see Yabe in suburban Hiroshima, and Tabuchi (1991) has (2003) for the case of Tokyo), but also in major examined the adaptation of residents in a mixed cities of prefectures in countryside. community through residents' behavior in an urban fringe area of Okayama.4 According to Urban Society and Political Matters Tabuchi, new kinds of social problems are seen in "konjuka" area: they are conflicts of interests Japanese society, including that in urban areas , and relative lack of solidarity between newcom- is believed to be quite homogeneous compared ers consisting of "rural non-farmers" and "urban to those of western countries, but actually , non-farmers," and original residents consisting of (ethnic) minorities such as Okinawan and Ainu "rural farmers" and "urban farmers ." A finding people, the original inhabitants of southern and that child-related ties play an important role in northern Japan, respectively,5 and Korean and creating the harmony between newcomers and Chinese who have come and settled in Japan in original residents is a critical point to investigate a variety of ways, voluntarily or by force, have further in depth. played an undeniable role in the urban society of On the other hand, private apartments are Japan (see next section for detail). There have likely to be located in the inner city and its also been a group of oppressed people in "bu- nearby suburbs. Kagawa (1984, 1988) has stud- raku" (literally meaning "village or settlement," ied locational patterns of private apartments in but also referring to discriminated areas, espe- downtown areas and influences caused by the cially in western Japan), who are thought to be construction of condominiums on surrounding partially the offspring of the suppressed people areas in his case study of Osaka, and Otsuka in the Edo era (1600-1867). Wakamatsu (2004) (2005) has examined the relations between the has argued about the relationships between pub- supply pattern of apartments and resident-seek- lic housing projects and buraku liberation move- ers' choices based on various questionnaire and ments in Wakayama. Concerning class and social interview research. Otsuka has emphasized the space in Japanese cities, Mizuuchi has described significant roles of administrative supports and it in his series of papers mainly from the view of sincere actions of residents for creating better the marginalized side through detailed case stud- urban area residence as social necessity. The ies in Osaka, which houses the largest number of concept of "social necessity," however, needs to homeless people in Japan (Mizuuchi 1982, 1998, be clarified. 2001). Also Fielding (2004) has elaborately ex- During the bubble economy period, some local amined the spatial characteristics of social seg- residents in the central Tokyo were forced to regation in Kyoto from a foreign perspective.6 move out due to the sharp rise of land prices Haraguchi (2003) has explained the emerging which resulted in skyrocketing land property and processes of "yoseba" (an inner-city district inheritance tax, and also by "gang-like" real-es- where employment agencies for day-laborers are tate agents called "jiageya" (literally, "land price located) and its implications, while Motooka risers"). Most of the gentrified spaces were used (2007) has described the disappearing process for (luxurious) commercial and business pur- of a squatters area called "Barrack Town" in poses. The abrupt end of the "bubble" economy post-war Kobe. In these studies, the social ex- and the following economic slump period have clusion thesis, which has attracted researchers' driven the land price down and also produced attention recently, has played an important role. vacant spaces in the inner city area, which had Spatial meaning of social exclusion will be a crit- not been suitable for residential use due to the ical point of view for geographers to investigate expensive price of the land. As a result, real-es- more in depth. tate agents obtained an opportunity to build The Japanese urban society has developed apartments and sell them at rather reasonable unique local residential associations called prices for middle-income workers. Now, we aree jichikai (or chonaikai). The history of jichikai

-283- 38 TAIRA A. is said to date back to the Edo era. The main above. But the theme has the potential to ex- purpose of jichikai is to create a good neigh- pand further in the discipline. Industrialization borhood through the mutual cooperation of res- and urbanization have brought a variety of ben- idents. So far, sociologists, especially urban so- efits to urban residents. At the same time, how- ciologists, have led the study of local community ever, they have caused many kinds of environ- and jichikai (for example, see Yoshihara (2000) mental and social problems, and grass-roots and Kaneko and Morioka (2001)). In geography, social movements have been organized against however, there is a paucity of studies in this field them, especially in the Greater Tokyo and Osaka in spite of the fact that the (local) community is areas and other industrial areas. In geography, a significant component of urban society. Among Kagawa (1998, 2001, 2003) has analyzed the the few studies, Taira (1990, English version in characteristics of a series of social movements 2003) has examined the transformation of a local along with industrialization in the local context community with depopulation in downtown in Kawasaki (Kanagawa Prefecture), Mizushima Tokyo, and has suggested a possibility of an en- (Okayama Prefecture, western Japan), and larged local community by the merger of tradi- Wakayama (south of Osaka).7 Kagawa has tional "jichikai" communities, based on public claimed that in Japan most social movement primary school districts. Onjo (1992) has pre- studies are concerned with environmental degra- sented a similar analysis of community in urban dation, while in the Anglophone countries they space through an investigation of a traditional are recognized as research in political geography. festival sustained by the urban residents in cen- So in Japan, it would be necessary to grasp en- tral Fukuoka in northern Kyushu. At the same vironmental movement issues in the context of time, concerning social network of urban resi- political processes with emphasis on their spatial dents, Hara (1994) has focused on their local- characteristics. ization processes in a case study in a suburb of In the age of post-industry and post-modernity, Osaka, and Nakamura (2004) has analyzed char- urban areas in Japan are facing new challenges acteristics of socialization of residents in a town (for example, see Nishiyama (1997), which has in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, using a argued restructuring urban space and commu- social network approach. For retirees local be- nity structure, and above-mentioned Kato havior, Kimura (2006) has examined their in- (1999), which has attempted a critical under- volvement process in community activities in the standing of the modernist gaze of the city). Al- suburbs of Tokyo. though, so far, urbanization has been accompa- The urban community is not limited to one nying residential dispersion towards the suburbs, formed by rather permanent residents but also not a few newly retired persons, with their phys- to another which is temporarily organized in ical abilities declining, have found that life in urban space. A night entertainment community suburbia is not as convenient for shopping or which appears in a portion of a central city is a going to hospital as they had imagined. Local good example. Sugiyama (1999) has performed governments have also recognized that the con- a unique study on "sakariba" ("amusement cept of a "compact city," in which residential, quarter" in his translation) as social space con- commercial and public functions are concen- structed in the urban setting. Sugiyama has trated in downtown, is critical for making the found that in the study district, located in down- city sustainable in the age of shrinking popula- town of the city of Toyama in central Japan, the tion and limited budget. place where girl and boy hunting called "nampa" So far, however, urban politics did not drew are conducted, is equivalent to subjective social much attention of Japanese geographers. But re- space and plays an important role for the youth cently that tendency has begun to change. Par- to maintain their identity. ticularly, social governance is becoming a topic Social justice and cities is a topic of impor- of discussion. Kawada (2007), for example, has tance. So far in Japanese geography, however, examined the progressing social governance in the number of studies on this topic is rather lim- urban planning in the city of Mitaka, a western ited except for the few examples discussed suburb of Tokyo, stressing liberal leadership of

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the city mayor with his open information policy minishing number of students , which has re- and the corresponding citizen participation in sulted in closures and mergers of local public city politics. Urban redevelopment measure is schools. In some cases, such measures evoked also a point of issue. Kohara (2005) has vividly opposition movements by residents and alumni described its social meaning from the residents' of those schools, especially when the schools perspective in relation with the city government have long histories and a good reputation . through a case study in the inner-city district of Miyazawa (1996) has presented a detailed ex- Osaka. In this case, the residents were said to amination of the spatial restructuring of the pub- have benefited from the redevelopment based on lic school systems and residents' movements their land ownership and community action . against it in the case of Chiyoda ward, central Urban political institutions face immediate Tokyo.8 challenges of natural hazards such as earthquake At the same time, urban space is constructed which no Japanese city can evade. The Hanshin- unevenly in terms of gender and age groups; it Awaji Great Earthquake in 1995 significantly could exclude a certain group of people based on damaged the urban societies of the Kobe area. their physical characteristics. Women have been The local government and the residents have thought to have different spatial behavior and struggled to rebuild the city and the community. life courses from men. Kageyama (2000) has ex- Not a few Japanese geographers have partici- plained characteristics of "gendered space" in pated in the reconstruction activities in Kobe pre-war downtown Tokyo based on her detailed and have reported the causes and damages of analysis of a typical apartment for women; the earthquake, and recovery processes. Ishii et. Nakazawa and Kamiya (2005) have reported al. (1996) has analyzed the distribution patterns about spatial differentiation in women's lives and of damaged housings and has made it clear that its factors through a case study of the alumni of those damaged buildings are concentrated in the two high schools in Kanazawa (central city of old and densely built semi-industrial areas in the Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan) and Yoko- inner-city of Kobe. Those areas have been likely hama. For spatiality of masculinity and male res- to be left behind in the urban renovation. On the idents, Murata (2000, 2004) has demonstrated other hand, at and after the earthquake, local unique works based on detailed field research. In community contributed to reduce the damages the former study, Murata has analyzed the char- and local schools became important shelters and acteristics of places where middle-aged single centers for evacuees. Ito (2007) has described men feel alienated, mainly through the narratives community restructuring through land readjust- of the male informants in order to explain the ment project in the Rokkomichi district in east- current situation of the masculinity of geograph- ern Kobe, claiming the importance of the equal ical knowledge, and in the latter study, he has partnership between the professionals of urban tried to elucidate the role of a male architect in politics and planning and the local residents. a social housing project in the suburbs of Gifu In the mean time, aging and the decreasing (the main city of Gifu Prefecture). So far, femi- population of Japanese society have led to a de- nist geographers have criticized a masculinity cline in tax revenues both for the central and bias in place construction and its interpretation. local government, and as a result, political re- But Murata has claimed that gendered space structuring has become unavoidable. Recently in does not privilege all men, but only those men Japan, mergers of local municipalities have been who meet certain conditions of masculinity. carried out all over the country; the number of There is a need for more gender studies which local municipalities called "machi (cho)" and focus not only on the power structure of gender "mura (son)" (towns and villages , respectively) in space but also on that inside the same gen- decreased dramatically. Arai (2003) has de- der. scribed the processes of the merger of the cities of Tanashi and Hoya located in the western sub- Finding Urban Ethnicity urbs of Tokyo and their changing locality. This aging of population means, in a way, also a di- Japanese society is often considered to be

-285- 40 TAIRA A. highly homogenous compared to other developed hoods in the big cities such as Minato-ku in countries. However, as Amino (1999) shows, it Tokyo, which houses the Roppongi district and has been a rather multi-ethnic one since its be- many foreign embassies and has good accessibil- ginning. And as Oguma (1995, 1998) claims, the ity to the downtown working places . On the idea of the homogeneity of the Japanese society other hand, the latter group are rather scattered was "created" through education under the con- in Japan with a number of concentrated areas in trol of the new Meiji government in order to Gunma, Shizuoka, Aichi and other prefectures in make the "nation-state" in the late 19th century . which many manufacturing plants offer places But as the Japanese territory expanded by colo- for them to work, especially for male residents. nization of Taiwan (1895), Korea (1910) and Abe (1997) has studied the changing working other nearby regions, Japanese society became structure and residences of the Chinese in Na- inevitably multi-ethnic in earnest. In geography, gasaki, and Fukumoto (2002) has outlined the Abe (1999, 2000) has examined the working con- living space of those "new-comers" in Osaka. ditions and changing residential patterns of Chi- Foreign women are likely to be engaged in the nese laborers in the Tokyo metropolitan area in third sector, specifically in the entertainment-re- the 1920s and Yamashita (1979) has described lated jobs such as those of cafes and pubs, and the lifestyle of Chinese residents of the China sometimes they are put in a kind of forced labor. Town in Yokohama. Abe (2003) has examined the emergence of the After the defeat of Japan in the second world space of Filipino pubs and the social structure of war Japan lost its colonies. But a number of for- symbolized buildings in the case of Nagoya. It is mer "Japanese" coming from gaichi (outer ter- another fact that among the latter group, those ritory of Japan such as Taiwan and Korea) re- who are of Japanese descent occupy a significant mained in the original Japanese archipelago, part. As in the multi-ethnic cities of American called naichi (inner Japan), especially in the and European societies, they are also creating urban areas, concentrated in Tokyo and Osaka their own communities inside Japanese cities. region. Concerning the spatial segregation of Ko- Geographic concentration of foreign residents in reans, Fukumoto (2004) has vividly described a city has made it possible to establish ethnic the transformation of their enclaves in Osaka businesses such as restaurants, food shops and during the period from the 1920s to the 1950s. video shops in the area. Kataoka (2004, 2005) Since the late 1980s, the Japanese society en- has wisely demonstrated the emergence of eth- tered the globalized era in earnest. The number nic business and their relation with the local so- of foreign inhabitants in Japan, especially in its ciety in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, located between urban areas, dominated by Tokyo and Osaka re- Tokyo and Nagoya. gions, suddenly increased. Those who have set- Increasing attention since the 1990s on these "new tled in Japan in this period are called "new-com- -comers" has also led to a focus on "old- ers," while those who came to Japan before and comers," who had not attracted Japanese geog- during the second world war and their offspring raphers for a long time in spite of their exis- are called "old-comers" in academia and the tence. Narita (1995) has called for attention to media. Currently, the share of foreign residents the ethnic minorities in Japan, discussing the in Japan is about two percent of the total popu- case of ethnic Koreans called "Zainichi" (liter- lation of 130 million. The share is still small com- ally "residing in Japan") in Tokyo and Osaka. pared to those in other developed countries. But To date, urban ethnicity has been argued mainly thinking of the historic transition of Japan's eth- from job-related perspectives: Jo (1995) has ex- nic composition, this share is quite remarkable amined the working conditions of elderly Kore- to the Japanese. ans in the industrial ward of Ota, Tokyo; Yama- In reality, the "new-comers" mentioned above moto (2002) has explained emerging ethnicity in are stratified roughly into two groups: "elite" pro- Kobe based on the case study of its roles in the fessionals and manual laborers. The former chemical-shoes industry complex. Lee (2002) group, dominated by Americans and Western Eu- has reported about the changing socio-economic ropeans, are likely to reside in "good" neighbor- characteristics of ethnic Koreans through job-

-286- A Critical Review of Recent Urban Social Geography 41 search networks.9 It is time to discuss the future cial geography, which will overlap with other of desirable multi-cultural and multi-ethnic urban sub-fields of human geography and other disci- societies in Japan from geographical viewpoints. plines. One possible frontier might be a cultural study of the urban society of Japan from geo- Conclusions graphic perspectives, as Yamaguchi (2002) has demonstrated in his research about street per- This article reviewed recent scientific research formance and street artists in Osaka.10 Because trends in Japanese urban social geography. It has it is possible to say that city and society inside become clear that the scope of research has ex- are entities which are culturally constructed, panded from residential characteristics to urban multi-culturalism will be a key concept for the community, stratification, politics and to ethnic- contemporary and future city. The growth of ity, along with the rapid transformation of Japan- urban social geography in Japan will surely con- ese urban society in a globalization era especially tribute to the development of human geography since the late 1980s. not only in this country but also in the larger Now, Japan faces serious new challenges. changing world. Japanese population reached its peak in 2005 and began to decrease for the first time in its Acknowledgements history. Aging population and shrinking numbers of youngsters are urging the central government I would like to thank Paul Batten, my colleague of to take imminent measures to make Japanese so- Kagawa University, for his valuable comments on my ciety a more "family-with-kids friendly" society, English writing. and to consider the possibility of introducing (Received 25 July 2007) (Accepted 7 January 2008) more active and open immigration policy. At the same time, in the large metropolis such as Tokyo, Notes Yokohama and Osaka, the existence of multieth- nic communities due to the globalization of the 1. For the definition of social geography, also see urban socio-economy is already a fact despite the Tsutsumi (2004: 1) and about social space, also image of homogenous society. see Buttimer (1969, 1972), Yamano (1979), On the other hand, the free market economy Kushiya (1984). policy, which was strengthened and accelerated 2. For land use change in downtown areas of Japan- under the Koizumi government, has resulted in ese cities, also see Ishimaru (1988). socio-economic problems in growing gaps and in 3. For the relations between economic geography working conditions; the diminishing number of and social geography, see Mizuoka (1993). full-time workers are forced to work much 4. Also see Takahashi (1997) and Kim (2003). longer, and the number of part-time workers are 5. About Okinawans in the urban space, see for ex- ample Mizuuchi (2001), and about Ainu people, rising rapidly in spite of the unprecedented prof- see Endo (2006). its of Japanese major global corporations. The 6. Also, see Kagawa (2004) for the history of social number of karoshi (death due to overwork) movement theory and its relation with geography. does not seem to fall. The word "working poor" 7. About Tokyo from a foreign view, we have an ex- attracts attention from the Japanese media, cellent study by Cybriwsky (1998). which have continuously reported the hard ex- 8. Also see Taira (1990, English version in 2003), periences of people in such conditions. and Sakagawa (2004). Both of them are claiming So far, Japanese geographers have been trying the significant role of public (elementary) schools to tackle these issues, but there is still a lot of as a center of local community. works to do. Our future agenda should be to 9. Also see Paku (2004) for features of spatial dis- deepen the contents of research in order to un- tributions of ethnic Korean enterprises in Japan. 10. For cultural turns in contemporary Japanese so- derstand the characteristics of the changing ciety, see Fukuda (2005). Japanese urban society, along with discussions about theoretical advancement. Also, it will be necessary to explore a new frontier of urban so-

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