Strategic spatial planning, “smart shrinking” and the deployment of CAVs in rural Japan

Abstract

The experiments taking place around connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) in global innovation networks today are largely technological in nature. This research takes a relational view of CAVs by investigating how they can be conceptualized within the larger context of strategic spatial planning. To do so, it takes Japan as a case study and explores how the current government is applying the tools of its new National Spatial Strategy (NSS) to strategically steer the development of its main economic and social sectors, including transport and the deployment of CAVs.