On Human Activities in Chinese and Japanese Cities : A Comparative Study

This paper focuses to the characteristics of human activities in Chinese cities compared with Japanese cities based on a time-geographic approach. We constructed a database of human activities derived from the previous surveys carried out in the selected cities both of China and of Japan. These include the activity data acquired by the surveys in three Japanese cities; Shimosuwa, Nissin and Kawagoe since 1988 and the surveys in three Chinese cities; Dalian, Tianjin and Shenzhen since 1995. Activity diaries method was employed in each surveys. The characteristics of human activities in Chinese cities can be summarize as follows based on the result of the comparative analysis between Chinese cities and Japanese cities. First, there is no significant difference between married men and women in all aspects of daily activities in China. Commuting distance and working hours of married women are quite similar to of men. Chinese married women appears to have wider job opportunities than Japanese. In addition, the smallness of the difference between male and female is not limited to of working. For example, Chinese women are more lively in their leisure activities than Japanese. In summary, The constraints of married women\u27s activities due to the gender roles in household affaires found in modem western societies as well as Japan is not clear in Chinese cities. Second, a dual activity space corresponding to walking and public transportation is noted in Chinese cities. There is no dominant zone of private car usage, which is generally found in Japanese cities, due to a small rate of private car diffusion. High working rate in full-time jobs of Chinese married women is maintained by wellprepared child care services as well as affordable housemaid services. The social backgrounds enabling these services are 1) a tradition that local governments and firms in China as well as the national government have regarded women\u27s full-time working as important, 2) flexible attitudes of original families towards child care, 3) an abundant supply of relatively cheap female labor suitable for housemaid services due to a huge economic disparity between industrialized cities and farming villages