The Change of the Types of Local Communities with the Development of the Capitalism in Japan

Abstract

This article is a study on the substantiative explication of the social change of local communities on and after the high economic growth in Japan, by establishing types of local communities, that is, all prefectures, all cities, towns and villages. Its basic purpose is the explication about the macro-structure of local communities in our time that differ from the macro-structure in old time understood as “city” and “village”.In this article I adopt the following indices for establishing types of local communities. - (1) as the criterion of the relatively independent character of local communities, (1) openness, (2) as the character of economic foundation in local communities, (2) level of productive forces, (3) industrial structure. And I analyze the change of the types of local communities established with the synthesis of the above three indices.As a result of the analysis, (1) in all prefectures, I find that we must understand the macro-structure of local communities in our time as the double structure, that is, the structural inequality between communities with weak economic foundation and managemental-administrative communities, the difference of productive forces in “industrial” communities. (2) In all cities, towns and villages, I find “a pyramid-like” structure of uneven development that has communities with central managemental function at the top, and that has agricultural communities with lower productive forces, communities with weak industrial foundation at the bottom. (3) I find that the difference between in all prefectures and in all cities, towns, and villages bases on deepening of the structure of uneven development among all cities, towns and villages in one prefecture.