著者

藤塚 吉浩

出版者

The Human Geographical Society of Japan

雑誌

人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.44, no.4, pp.495-506, 1992-08-28 (Released:2009-04-28)

参考文献数

42

被引用文献数

9 7

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This article aims to analyze the origin of and characteristics newcomers, the characteristics of them, the attribute of their dwellings, and the problems of displacement in Nishijin, Kyoto.Nishijin has been the historical weaving center of Kyoto. A lot of textile factories, however, have closed in recent years. The townscape of this district is attractive, because the streets are lined with a neat row of houses. Since most of the buildings were constructed before the Pacific War, they have deteriorated in recent years. And the district is rapidly losing population, especially the younger generation. From this point of view, Nishijin is a typical inner city area.During the early- and mid-1980's a number of residential buildings were constructed mainly in the place where the textile industry stood. And in-movers to this district have increased since the mid-1980's. Particularly in-movers from within the city of Kyoto have increased. This trend is related to the stage of urban development of this city. The population density of the central area is high, so there are still many outmovers from there. Since the suburban residential districts have not fully matured, there are relatively few members of the younger generation, who live away from their parents. Therefore in-movers, who lived inside the city, out-number those returning from the suburbs.During the first half of 1980's a number of residential buildings were constructed, and then new types of people come to the district. The increase of the white collar class is remarkable.There are two types of residential buildings. One is a condominium which has four or five rooms. As a residence it has enough room for three persons, the average house-hold size. Its style corresponds to that of gentrifiers. Its residents are young couples in their late twenties or thirties, and most of them have one or two children. It is a feature of Japanese gentrification that the predominant type of residents are familes with children. The other type of bulldings are apartment buildings which consist of single rooms with private kitchen and bath. Their residents are singles, mainly students. Most of students had hitherto dwelled in rented rooms without private kitchens and baths. Since they preferred to live in the upgraded comfortable dwellings, landlords have constructed such apartment buildings for them. This means gentrification by landlords. And the residents are marginal gentrifiers.The construction of residential buildings is made possible the existence of sites of closed textile factories. Since the demand for the residential buildings has increased in the latter 1980's, they have been built in sites where houses have been pulled down. Therefore displacement of residences has increased in recent years.This phenomenon has many points of resemblance to gentrification in the Western countries. If this trend continues the local inhabitants and the attractive townspace of historical houses will be lost. There is a danger that the pecuriality of this district cannot be maintained.