Geographical studies on causes and consequences of regional income inequality in Japan

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24320169
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: TOYODA TETSUYA 徳島大学, 大学院ソシオ・アーツ・アンド・サイエンス研究部, 教授 (30260615)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKAGAWA Satoshi 埼玉大学, 人文社会科学研究科, 教授 (10314460) ; NAGAO Kenkichi 大阪市立大学, 経済学研究科, 教授 (50301429) ; NAKAYA Tomoki 立命館大学, 文学部, 教授 (20298722) ; UTAKAWA Kunio 九州大学, 経済学研究院, 准教授 (90452482) ; HANIBUCHI Tomoya 中京大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (40460589)
• Research Collaborator: YAMAMOTO Daisaku 米国コルゲート大学, 助教授
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 地域格差 / 世帯所得 / 人口移動 / 経済構造 / 健康格差 / 地域政策

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Socio-economic inequality has become a major concern in contemporary Japan. Focusing on geographic dimensions of inequality, this research project first identifies two distinct concepts of regional inequality. The first type essentially captures uneven geographical distributions of focal phenomena, such as population and gross regional product; we call this “regional inequality in size.” The second type captures differences in derived data, such as income per capita or per household, across space; we call this “regional inequality in level.” Some of the major empirical findings are as follows: 1) the former type of inequality has generally increased while the latter declined across prefectures in the recent decades; 2) population growth has been concentrated in Tokyo alone since the 1980s, and is accompanied by selective migration of highly educated labor force; and 3) growing socio-economic and geographical inequalities in health are observed at multiple spatial scales.

Free Research Field

人文地理学