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Contents Introduction

The long-run sustainability of the national economy has been a great concern for several decades in Japan. However, the spatial economic structure still includes a number of insufficient allocations. These are characterized as severe spatial concentration in the core in addition to extremely long and narrow geographical attributes. As a result, it is necessary to reexamine an ideal spatial allocation for the long-run sustainable economic development across the nation. In this paper, we initially introduce an overview of recent economic geography of Japan, which is followed by an alternative spatial model framework in terms of the central-place system, market access and agglomeration economies. Finally, a consideration is given to policy implications and potential difficulties of these practices. Also, further extensions of the analysis are provided.