Stagnation or Decline of Small and Medium-sized Cities and their Economic Base

我在1995年和1996年写的三篇文章总结如下：1.通过对广岛县区域城镇体系结构变化的分析，发现广岛大都市圈在过去几十年中发展迅速，而中小城镇由于基础设施条件差，除了西方国家外，没有得到发展。2.根据对广岛市批发和生产性服务业分支公司发放的约530份问卷，我发现分支办公室在办公室人员转移到另一个办公室时与位于同一级别或更高级别城市的办公室密切相关以及通过电话或传真与其他办事处进行信息交流，而它们与中国区或其西部地区的冈山、福山、松江等城市的联系密切，作为贸易区的分支办事处的领土范围。3.考察81个主要城市的企业活动与城市系统的关系，分支办公人员的增长速度与人口增长速度密切相关。虽然东京都市圈的上班族增长率并不高，但在过去10年中，都道府县首府与都市圈的联系似乎比省会城市更加紧密。

Three articles which I wrote in 1995 and 1996 are summarized as follows :1.Analyzing the structural changes of regional urban systems in Hiroshima Prefecture, I found that the Hiroshima metropolitan area grew rapidly in the last decades while small and medium-sized cities and towns could not grow due to their poor conditions of infrastructure, apart from those in Western countries.2.Based on about 530 questionnaires distributed to branch offices of wholesales and producer services in Hiroshima City, I found that branch offices are closely connected with those located in cities of its same or higher class in the transfer of office workers to another office as well as information exchanges with other offices by telephon or fax, while they have close lincages with those of cities such as Okayama, Fukuyama, Matsue etc. within Chugoku district or its western part as the territory area of branch offices in the trade dusiness.3.Examining the relations between firm activities and urban systems in 81 main cities, the growth rate of branch office workers is closely related with the rate of population increase. Although the growth rate of office workers is not so high in the Tokyo metropolitan area itself, the connection to it seems to be more strengthened in prefectural capitals than in provincial capitals in the last decade.