Zur regionalen Dimension sozialer Probleme in Japan

It is widely maintained that the dominant feature of Japan’s spatial geography is the contrast in the spatial distribution of social and economic phenomenon between the Tōkyō metropolitan region, and the sparsely populated countryside. The present article, however, attempts to show that at least with regard to those social problems that are strongly related to mortality levels, the reality is far more complex. By using both correlation analysis and multiple classification analysis it can be demonstrated that it is the occupational structure of regions that exerts the strongest influence upon the distribution of such social indicators as the unemployment rate, the percentage of female divorcees, the number of fatherless households, and the number of people receiving public livelihood assistance. In this respect, urban areas like Osaka or Fukuoka, which display low percentages of higher administrative and professional occupations, rural regions with a relative lack of jobs in the manufacturing sector (mostly located in the southwestern part of Japan), and some bathing resort towns in particular may be described as »problem areas«. The urban-rural contrast as such, on the other hand, is only influential with regard to the distribution of the price-adjusted, average income of employees and the age-adjusted, percentage of persons without higher education. Finally, there are some phenomena such as the percentages of burakumin and of older, single-person households, that are distributed according to historical and cultural regions. The author concludes that more research on spatial distribution patterns is needed in order to fully comprehend the regional structure of Japan and thereby assist in the determination of a more successful regional planning policy.