Studies on the social changes in the re-urbanization era : focusing on Osaka City

日本大都市在经历了漫长的郊区化后，自2000年以来重新获得了人口，并经历了再城市化。经济衰退导致的地价下跌和中心城区对办公空间需求的减少导致了大规模共管公寓的建设，带来了大量的新居民进入该地区。我们在大阪的中心城区进行了研究。通过对当地组织领导人的访谈和对相关文献的回顾，我们考察了该地区的人口转型是如何影响当地社区的，重点是新居民和老居民之间的关系。在大阪市，大阪市社区促进会(Tiikishinkokai)是以社区为基础的组织。我们发现，新居民普遍对参与协会漠不关心，而由老居民管理的协会如何在新老居民之间建立良性互动成为一个关键问题。老居民倾向于重视传统社会，深度参与社区，而新居民往往不太关心社区，珍视隐私。这种不和谐使得他们之间很难培养更好的理解。我们观察到，大阪中心城区的协会领导人现在面临着这些挑战。

After the long period of suburbanization, Japanese metropolis have regained population and experienced re-urbanization ever since 2000. The fall of land price due to recession and the decrease of demand for office spaces in central city areas induced the construction of large scale condominiums, which brought huge number of new residents into the areas.We conducted research in Osaka's central city areas. By interviews with leaders of the local organizations and by a review of related literature, we examined how the demographic transformation in the areas affected local communities, focusing on the relationships between new residents and old residents. In Osaka city, the Tiikishinkokai (Osaka City Community Promotion Association) serves as the community-based organization.We found that new residents are generally indifferent to participating in the associations and that it becomes a critical issue for the associations, which have been mostly managed by old residents, to create a positive interaction between new residents and old ones. While old residents tend to value traditional society and involve themselves in the community deeply, new residents tend to have little concern for the community and cherish privacy. This discord makes it difficult to nurture better understanding among them. We observed that the leaders of the associations in Osaka's central city areas have now faced these challenges.