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

日本大都市在经历了长期的郊区化之后，从2000年开始重新恢复了人口，经历了再城市化。由于经济衰退导致的地价下跌和中心城区办公用房需求的减少，导致了大规模公寓的建设，从而带来了大量的新居民。我们在大阪的中心城区进行了调查。通过对当地组织领导人的访谈和对相关文献的回顾，我们研究了这些地区的人口转型如何影响当地社区，重点关注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）是社区组织。我们发现，新居民普遍对参与社团漠不关心，对于以老居民为主的社团来说，如何在新老居民之间建立良性互动成为一个关键问题。老居民更重视传统社会，更深入地融入社区，而新居民则不太关心社区，更珍惜隐私。这种不和谐使得在他们之间培养更好的理解变得困难。我们注意到，大阪中心城区各协会的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.