AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF HIGH SPEED RAILWAY ON INTER -REGIONAL MIGRATION AND TRAFFIC FLOW IN JAPAN

摘要

The development of high-speed inter-city railways called "Shinkansen" is still undergoing in Japan. In addition, the MAGLEV system operated at the maximum speed of over 500km/h is planned between Tokyo and Osaka that will realize the "within an hour economic region" with 70 million populations. This will cause the dramatic change of inter-regional migration and traffic flow. The objectives of this paper are to review the characteristics of the inter-regional migration and traffic flow for past 40 years in Japan and to analyze the relation between the development and the speed-up of inter-city railway transport, to give considerations about the effect of the MAGLEV system on the regional economic activities.