| Summary: | The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the population growth pattern of the Japanese urban settlements and the factors behind the changes between 1970 and 1990. From previous studies of the Japanese settlements, it was observed that Japan achieved a high degree of urbanisation, and that a pattern of internal migration saw the population shift into the three Japanese metropolitan areas from outside. However, these observations were based on administrative boundaries, which was not suitable for examining actual changes to the Japanese settlement system. Therefore, a new definition of functional urban regions called 'Japanese Functional Urban Area' (JFUA) was established. Various analyses based on the new JFUA definition, such as population change, city size distribution and urban development stages, showed that the Japanese settlement system witnessed the concentration of population into larger settlements in the 1970s and the 1980s. The largest settlements such as Tokyo and Osaka recorded growth in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, the Tokyo area showed a 'unipolar concentration' pattern of population growth. This pattern was different from the US and UK settiements, with both their settlement systems showing a decline of the largest settlements in the 1970s and the recovery in the 1980s. Although the Japanese settlement system represented a different growth pattern from the US and UK, the factors contributing to urban change in Japan turned out to be similar those. The role of the service sector was highly important to growth. whilst the declining industries such as steel and shipbuilding were no longer important in promoting regional development and influenced urban decline. This thesis also examined the government's policies for regional development, but an examination of population change in the policy targeted areas found that it is difficult to find any evidence of policy effectiveness.
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