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This paper examines the role of subcentres and satellite cities in the patterns of growth of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, rst outlining the development of metropolitan planning ideas for the Tokyo region from the 1920s to the 1990s, and then examining empirical evidence on patterns of population and employment change that occurred from 1970 to 1995 to determine the degree to which a polycentric pattern of growth has emerged. Japanese planners initially adopted European greenbelt/satellite city schemes uncritically, and then gradually adapted them to circumstances in Japan, eliminating the greenbelt concept along the way. Metropolitan plans have since the 1970s instead proposed the development of a multi-polar metropolitan region as a way of reducing travel needs and distances while eliminating the need to prevent development in intervening areas. The data on patterns of change of population and employment suggests that there has indeed been a considerable tendency towards polycentric development in the Tokyo region, although not only in the planned subcentres, and even though the core area has maintained or increased its dominance as an employment centre. The implications of these ndings are then explored.

This paper is relevant to the international e!ort to transfer an urban land development technique, land readjustment (LR), to several developing countries in South East Asia. The paper examines the model of the Japanese LR method presented by Japanese scholars and development experts to the international audience, and argues that in the context of attempts by several developing countries to adopt the method, there are several crucial shortcomings of the description of Japanese LR in the existing literature. Most important is that the history of opposition to LR in Japan is virtually ignored, and there is very little mention of the enormous commitments of local planning resources necessary to organise consent to projects. These issues are important for an understanding of the use of LR in Japan, and may also have implications for those attempting to make use of LR techniques in other countries. The paper brie#y outlines the LR method and the project to export the method to South East Asia, examines the existing literature, and draws on case studies of project organising in three suburban cities in the Tokyo area.

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