Japanese Journal of Human Geography Vol.65 No.1(2013)

Vol.65 No.1(2013)

Contents

Special Issue : Progress of Human Geography in Japan since 1980 Part II

ONODA Kazuyuki, MIYAMOTO Shinji, FUJITA Hirotsugu, KOMEIE Taisaku, KAWAHARA Norifumi and KAWAGUCHI Hiroshi
Historical Geography in Japan since 1980  1

Research Note

KIRIMURA Takashi
Residential Clusters of Foreigners by Nationality in the Twenty-three Wards of Tokyo : Their Socioeconomic Characteristics Related to the Structure  29

TANAKA Masahiro
Qualitative Aspects of Cognitive Distance in Urban Space in Relation to Daily Movement Behavior : A Case Study of University Students in Kanazawa  47

Meeting Reports

Special Presentations in Annual Meeting 2012  63

129th, 130th Research Seminar of Historical Geography Study Group  79
111th Research Seminar of Geographical Thought Study Group  85
45th Research Seminar of Metropolitan Area Study Group  87
25th Research Seminar of Education of Geography Study Group  91
3rd Research Seminar of Political Geography Study Group  93

News  95
Notes for Contributors of the English Papers  102
Subscription  104

Abstracts

Historical Geography in Japan since 1980

ONODA Kazuyuki
Kobe City Museum
MIYAMOTO Shinji
Okayama University of Science
FUJITA Hirotsugu
Kobe University
KOMEIE Taisaku
Kyoto University
KAWAHARA Norifumi
Ritsumeikan University
KAWAGUCHI Hiroshi
Tezukayama University

This paper reviews major achievements of Japanese historical geography, history of cartography, and historical GIS since 1980. We can obtain fruitful research results in the three realms of historical geography – “real world”, “imagined world”, and “abstract world” – as defined by H. C. Prince. In “real world”, reconstruction of landscapes and regional structure has been a basic subject. Modern historical geography established itself as a key platform to connect the past and the present world. There are two major new currents in this field : environmental history and interdisciplinary communication. Geographers, historians and archaeologists increasingly share resources and methodologies in historical geography to carry out interdisciplinary studies. As of 1980, some geographers started to study historical maps in “imagined world”, in order to understand the cosmology of people in the past. Since the beginning of the 21st century, research works with historical GIS have well started in “abstract world”, which will play a key role to integrate the results of individual research in the humanities and social sciences, including historical geography.

Key words: historical geography, landscape reconstruction, environmental history, history of cartography, historical GIS, interdisciplinary study

Residential Clusters of Foreigners by Nationality in the Twenty-three Wards of Tokyo : Their Socioeconomic Characteristics Related to the Structure of the Residential Areas

KIRIMURA Takashi
Postdoctoral Fellow, Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the socioeconomic characteristics of residential clusters of foreigners by their nationality within the residential area structure of the 23 wards of Tokyo. The paper utilizes areal classification of the characteristics of residents, based on small area statistics in the 2005 Census.
In general, small area statistics related to the foreign population in Japan are unavailable. However, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has compiled statistics for a number of separate nationalities of foreigners, based on the results of the 2005 Census. The author constructed an areal classification of residents’ characteristics, using statistics published by both the Statistics Bureau and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The classification reveals socioeconomic characteristics of foreigners’ residential clusters for each of four major nationalities : Koreans, Chinese, Americans, and Filipinos.
There are three significant findings about the distribution of the foreigner population according to ten different nationalities and the socioeconomic characteristics of each residential cluster.
First, patterns of residential distribution differ according to nationality. Among the ten nationalities for which there is data, the British, Americans, Koreans, and Chinese can be recognized as residing in cohesive cluster patterns. However, the Asian foreigner population appears in sectorial patterns, whose residential differentiation seems defined by the socioeconomic aspects of the traditional structure of the residential areas in the 23 wards of Tokyo.
Second, each cluster area by nationality shows different socioeconomic characteristics. White-collar workers and wealthy people dominate where American residents cluster. Meanwhile, many gray-collar workers live where Chinese and Korean residents cluster. This polarization by nationality was pointed out in the early 1990s, and still exists in 2005.
Third, socioeconomic characteristics among Korean residential cluster areas vary. This phenomenon seems caused by differences in the kinds of Koreans who have recently been migrating to Japan. While many gray-collar workers live in the newcomers’ clusters, the occupational composition in south-central Adachi Ward, whose foreign population has recently remained the same or decreased, is similar to that of Japanese residents.

Key words: small area statistics, areal classification, socioeconomic characteristics, foreign population by nationality, residential clusters of foreigners

Qualitative Aspects of Cognitive Distance in Urban Space in Relation to Daily Movement Behavior : A Case Study of University Students in Kanazawa

TANAKA Masahiro
Graduate Student, Tokyo Metropolitan University

The aim of this study is to analyze qualitative aspects of cognitive distance in urban space considering their relationship with context-dependency. Data used in this study were obtained from 181 university students in Kanazawa City. After examining the theoretical basis of the qualitative cognitive distance in a large-scale space in accordance with cognitive linguistics, I assumed that the dichotomy of small-scale space around the body between “the space that can be reached by a limb” and “the space that can be seen but not reached” becomes a prototype of qualitative cognitive distance in a large-scale space, being metaphorically interrelated with those two spaces. Based on this assumption, we examined the relationship between qualitative cognitive distance drawn from university students in Kanazawa City and their contexts of daily movement behavior. An analysis of the relationship between the context of daily movement behavior and qualitative cognitive distance using Hayashi’s Quantification Theory III revealed that action space in the city is divided into a “close phase” (i. e., visited frequently and contacted directly), and a “far phase” (i. e., rarely visited or contacted), both of which are metaphorically related to the dichotomy of small-scale space between “the space that can be reached by a limb” and “the space that can be seen but not reached.” Since frequency of visits, mobility, and relative position among residence and destinations strongly influence the “close phase” and “far phase,” qualitative cognitive distance in urban space is considered to be affected by these contexts of daily movement behavior. Namely, the frequency of visits defines the similarity between “close phase,” “far phase,” and the space around the body ; moreover, mobility and relative position among residence and destinations define a range of both the “close phase” and the “far phase.”

Key words : cognitive distance, daily movement behavior, action space, context-dependency, embodied experience

To Page Top