The spatial structure of employment in the metropolitan region of Tokyo: A scale-view

Despite Tokyo’s size and position in the global urban system, studies of its employment distribution have been few. This research identified the locations and ranks of the employment centers in the entire metropolitan region and analyzed the characteristics of the economic sectors in those centers by using fine scale economic census data. Minimum sizes for a center were explored at a range from as small as 250 by 250 m to 3,000 by 3,000 m, and the Local Indicators of Spatial Association technique was utilized for detecting centers in different ranks. The results showed that, from a regional view, Tokyo has a typical monocentric or concentric spatial structure. However, from a fine scale view, the distribution was revealed to be expanding along the railroads to the suburbs, and both the main central business district and the suburbs are polycentric. Through this research, the authors argue that rather than using thresholds of total employment and minimum densities as seen in the previous studies, centers can be effectively detected by comparing with the surrounding areas at different scales. This “scale-view” approach of center identification may provide a new perspective to other metropolitan regions of the world as well.