Urbanization, Suburbanization and Revived-urbanization : ROXY-index Analysis for the Chuo-line Region of Tokyo

It is one of the most important roles for spatial economists to provide scholars and policy makers who are tackllng urban and regional issues with a better insight into the basic tendency of the changes in the spatial redistribution of socio－economic activities within urban areas． Based on this standpoint， the present paper examines the urbanization and suburbanization process of the Chuo－line region of the Tokyo metropolitan area for the period lg47－95． For investigating the Chuo－line region that extends to the west from the CBD of Tokyo and that is long and narrow in shape， this paper emp正oys the Klaassen’s spatial－cycle framework as atheoretical scheme and the ROXY－index approach as an analytical instrument． Results show， fbr the period l990－95， that the Chuo－line region seems to be nearly at the last phase of the decelerating－suburbanization stage and to be about to get into the first phase of the．accelerating－urbanization stage（i．e，， the first phase Qf the revived－urbanization stage）． One Qf the noteworthy policy implications derived from our results is that the magnitude of the necessity for the urban investment in the inner zone of the Tokyo metropolitan area along the Chuo－line region is increasing significantly for augmenting the positive effects stemming from the urban agglomeration economies and for reducing the negative effects caused by the urban agglomeration diseconomies， in order to prepare for the forthcoming revived－urbanization stage