ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the processes and circumstances that contribute to urban depopulation in Japan in the light of the current demographic, social, spatial, and economic changes. The author discusses theoretical aspects of shrinking cities as well as the internal and external circumstances of this phenomenon in the context of spatial planning and management, allowing him to recognise a range of associated externalities. The complex relationships between these externalities and attempts to address local socioeconomic needs may lead to economic decline, population loss, space depreciation, and the collapse of the local community as well as its culture. These interactions are also responsible for the various well-documented examples of urban shrinkage.
