The Spatial Classification of the Rural Area in Hiroshima Metropolitan Area, Japan

Abstract

Japanese rural areas have experienced deep socio-economic changes since the high level of economic growth period. For instance, Rurban Villages (Konjuuka-shakai), a new type of community which is composed of farm and non-farm households, have been appearing in the metropolitan area, while the remote rural areas have been suffering from serious depopulation. In Europe, Lewis and Maund (1976) proposed a schematic representation which is founded upon the gradient principle to describe these spatial variations.This paper examines the adaptability of the gradient principle and attempts to clarify the spatial classification of the rural settlements in the Hiroshima Metropolitan area both in 1970 and 1980 in order to present a schema which explains the spatial changes of Japanese rural areas.The results obtained in this paper are as follows:The gradient principle is demonstrated concerning farm land, rural population, rural labor force, agricultural managements and regional society. The rural settlements are classified by 3 socio-economic variables: the ratio of farm households, that of regular part-time farm households, and agricultural income. In classifying the rural settlements, the division values of the variables are estimated as x+0.5σ and x-0.5σ (x: mean, σ: standard devitation) of each variable. The rural settlements are divided into 3 parts in each variable so that 33=27 types are obtained, but only those types which account for more than 5 percent of all rural settlements are analyzed in this paper.The distribution of rural settlement types is schematized as shown Fig. 10 based on the distance from Hiroshima City.The area is divided into the following 4 regions:The Suburbs (I) is the typical Rurban Village which is composed of both farm and non-farm households. Most of the rural settlements have kept agriculture only for a self-sufficiency, while a few have maintained intensive agriculture though the built-up area has been expanded. In Sector (II), commercial agriculture has developed and the agricultural income has formed an important part of household economy. Sector (III) has been suffering from serious depopulation because both agriculture and transportation for commuting are in bad condition. In Sector (IV), seasonal/casual manual labour has been dominant so that the population has depended slightly on agriculture income. In every sector, the rural settlements along the main transport routes depend a little on agriculture and the ratio of regular part-time farm households is high because of the convenience of transportation.In the period between 1970 and 1980, it is evident that the mixture of farm and nonfarm households and the ratio of regular part-time farm households have been increasing. This phenomena has spread outwards from Hisroshima City via the main transport routes.The schema in this paper indicates that the regional division of the rural area is explained by not merely the gradient principle, but also the differentiation principle.