Transnational professionals’ socio-spatial venturing out to the Tokyo global city-region

Abstract

Global-city research has focused primarily on considering transnational corporations and transnational professionals (TNPs) in economic terms, neglecting the role of TNPs’ specific socio-spatial practices in constituting the transnational space. Although researchers on global city-regions (GCRs) have pointed to the relevance of the larger regions for global cities, little is known about the TNPs moving into such regions, and their socio-spatial patterns within them. On the basis of novel empirical results derived from 45 in-depth interviews with TNPs, this paper sheds a light on patterns of socio-spatial practices in Tokyo, Japan–a well-established, yet unexplored, global city–and its larger GCR. Results show two distinct patterns within the TNPs, that is, the gaijin ghetto and the Pro-Tokyoite patterns. The gaijin ghetto is characterized by a Western-dominated culture and is spatially concentrated within a very small area in the core of Tokyo, with limited extra-urban spots in the GCR. The Pro-Tokyoite pattern is spatially more varied and spread within the larger metropolitan area, reaching into the wider GCR, with social practices and interactions closer to the local peer group. This paper discusses how these socio-spatial patterns are embedded in the global, regional and local spatial settings and it demonstrates that TNPs are in fact venturing out of the city centre into the broader GCR.