Private rental housing residents and their residential careers in Chuo Ward, Tokyo

Abstract

This study explored the characteristics of private rental housing residents and their residential careers in Chuo ward, Tokyo. The results of the survey show that of those analyzed, 76.4% were unmarried and 16.4% were married, and more than 90% of both groups were white-collar. The residential career of the unmarried people aged 25–39, who accounted for more than half of the respondents, varied depending on their place of origin. Those from the Tokyo metropolitan area tended to move to Chuo ward from the wards or the suburbs. On the other hand, those from outside the Tokyo area tended to move to Chuo ward after moving to other wards or suburbs when they started working, or they tended to move from outside the Tokyo area to Chuo ward due to job transfer or job change. Their move to Chuo ward was the result of their decision oriented toward proximity to work and home. A comparison of residential careers of the former generations in the suburbanization era of the 1960s and 1980s with that of the post second-baby-boom generations, shows that the latter is marked by inward migration by unmarried people and rising age when unmarried people move into the city center. Providing background to the population recovery in the three central wards of Tokyo since the latter half of the 1990s, this study points out the prolonged unmarried period and the collapse of the bubble economy, which have had an effect on the residential mobilities of the post second-baby-boom generations.