Networked Compact City Policy Status and Issues—Hierarchy and Human Mobility in Tokyo, Japan

As a policy to promote compact cities, Japan formulated the Location Normalization Plan (LNP) in 2014. By this plan, each municipality is promoting the establishment of Urban Function Induction-encouraged Areas (UFIA) in which life service facilities are to be provided. The role of the UFIA in the region might differ depending on the city scale and the UFIA hierarchy. For this study, using the Tokyo Person Trip survey, we specifically examined the mobility of people and clarified differences in the hierarchical nature of UFIA to ascertain the current status and issues of UFIA. Consequently, we obtained the following information for the realization of compactness. (1) The actual conditions of traffic characteristics and facilities differ depending on the UFIA hierarchy. Moreover, considering these hierarchies during the study of UFIA is important. (2) Sub-core UFIA in cities with a large population have a narrow usage area and a high ratio of traffic-sharing between walking and bicycling, which might engender the construction of compact living areas. (3) However, sub-core UFIA in cities with a small population have a high ratio of traffic-sharing of automobiles and a wide usage area, which presents challenges for compact city realization