The Significance of Landownership Change in Old Industrial Districts The Case of Knitting Industrial Accumulation in Sumida, Tokyo

Abstract Sumida Ward, one of the old industrial districts in Tokyo, has been undergoing a prolonged period of deindustrialization. The socio-economic attributes of its land have played a major role in the reduced level of activity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the landownership characteristics and typology of present land use in the Knitting industrial accumulation located in Sumida, based upon analysis of a group of land parcels. Three main findings were made; first, there is a strong tendency demonstrated for new owners to introduce new uses for land, replacing old ones. Second, the area has not gone through dramatic changes that could alter its nature because new owners generally purchased limited area. Large portion of land have remained in the hand of managers and/or their successors. Later owners have showed little tendency to set up new businesses after closing down the original knitting industry, instead they have converted the factories into houses. Third, the land parcels, which still support textile industries, have been utilized to integrate relatively many new usage types as well, thus enabling enrichment in the area′s variety of uses.