The Hierarchy of Central Places in Tohoku District

Abstract

The writer once classified cities and towns by measuring the number of commercial employees, and assumed the hierarchy system of urban settlement in Tohoku district (1955, Ann. Tohoku Geogr. Assoc.). Suplemental informations concerning to their practical activities were given in this paper.(1) Viewed from service activities, the classes denoted in the previous paper are correlated as follows.I, II: (O class service center), fully equipped with all kinds of activities (found in Japanese Statistical Classification of Industries —minor rank—), for exmaple, department store.III: (A class serivce center), well balanced development of services and commerce (including retials of durable goods and wholesale of nondurable goods).III-VI, IV'; (B class service center), equipped with commerce of C class order and with some attributive services which contribute to regional productions.)IV: (C class center) equipped with retails of non-durable goods.(2) Viewed from regionalism system (for exmaple, hierarchy of governmetnal system), key formation is as follows.O class serivce center; types of seat of prefectural Government.A class seerivice center; divided into two types of regionalism center, A class regionalism center and B class (whose institutes are commanded by A class institutes).B class service center; consists of various ranks of regionalism centers (not in accordance to the scales of service activities).C class service center; having no signfiicance as regionalism center.(3) The combination of these two systems of hierarchy is schematized as Fig. 4 in p. 8.The regionalism center is often unconformable to the scales of commercial activities but show the influence of former “Gun”-Government system.