Process of Population Redistribution in Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas of Wakayama Prefecture since 1960

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of population redistribution between the central city and the suburbs in metropolitan and micropolitan areas of Wakayama prefecture since 1960.To characterize the process of population redistribution with in metropolitan and micropolitan areas, the urban development stage model by Klassen et al was applied. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that pattern of population redistribution in the metropolitan area where the population increased was in line with the urban development
stage model. On the other hand, in the micropolitan areas where population growth is hardly seen, the trend was different from the modelʼs assumption. However, it became clear that the pattern of population redistribution in the declining micropolitan areas is characterized by continued relative concentration in the disurbanization stage. From this point, it was shown that the analytical framework of population change in the urban development stage model is effective for grasping the population redistribution within metropolitan and micropolitan areas.