Analysis of Motives of Opening in Urban Underground Shopping Malls

In Japan, numerous underground shopping malls were built between 1955 and 1975 for a variety of motives. Some of them, after renovations, are now about to make a fresh start as “New Underground Commercial Centers”. From the examples of the utilization of spaces for urban underground shopping malls, this paper has identified some characteristics of the motives of opening by referring to the relations between the type classification and the urban underground utilities (subways, underground parking lots and underground pedestrian passages). As a result, it has been found that underground shopping malls may be classified into five types based on the motives for opening them, the appearing stage (1st stage), the developing stage (2nd stage), the means to acquire additional parking lots (3rd stage), the principily banning stage (4th stage) and the underground passage construction promotion (5th stage).