Japanese contributions to regional science

Abstract

Given the field's interdisciplinary nature, regional scientists come with a wide spectrum of backgrounds. In this paper, we study the contributions to regional science made by scholars from Japan. First, we briefly examine how Japanese regional scientists came to develop a keen sense towards urban problems. Second, we identify the most influential authors and papers via a citation analysis. The results indicate that scholarly outputs in regional science are reaching a wider audience beyond scientists, while maintaining the order of impact among them. Lastly, we focus on the new economic geography where Japanese scholars have made a significant contribution.