On the structure of the spatial distribution of recent urban population in Japan.

The object of this paper is to analyze the structure of the spatial distribution of the recent urban population in Japan by applying the rank-size rule to the population of the cities in each region of this country. According to the studies which have been done the rank-size rule is regarded as an adequate model to describe the structure of the urban population in each region of Japan. On the other hand the fact that under certain conditions the rank-size rule can be simultaneously applied to the urban population in a country was found theoretically possible. Therefore in this paper the rank-size rule was used as a model to describe the urban population of the regions in Japan for the period of time from 1960-1975. We also found that the rank-size rule could be applied successfully to the population of the cities in each region in Japan for the period of time observed. From the results obtained we can conclude that the structure of the spatial distribution of the recent urban population in Japan is homogeneous. (authors)