New telecommunications technologies impacts on spatial structure and metropolitan areas integration (The case of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya metropolitan areas in Japan)

New telecommunications technologies as newest and most complicated part of electronic communications technologies, because of invisibility of flows and little dependence on physical place, have a unique nature comparing with other types of communications, especially transportation. In fact, these technologies provide transmission of information – as the most important factor in the new global economy- and capital in an unbelievable speed – almost the speed of light- by electronic networks like optic fibers and wireless systems, regardless of physical and geographical features. Therefore, it seems that the development of these communication technologies in today’s urban life may cause completely new changes. These changes may influence all economic, social, physical and spatial aspects and finally, shape the future of urban and regional life. Concentrating on spatial and geographical aspect, there are some notable researches, especially castells’ works on informational society, who has developed the theory of “space of flows” as the dominant logic of new geography in contrast with the “space of places”. He argues that an important part of these flows is bidirectional electronic communications. Now, based on this theory, the key question is that what are the main impacts of this dominant and the development of new telecommunications technologies on the spatial structure of the metropolitan areas? And what could be the future of metropolitan spatial structure? In this case, some argued that the development of this placeless and timeless kind of communication technologies leads to significant decrease in place and time constraints in inter-regional relations. This trend results in increasing functional relationships between metropolitan areas and so, blurring these area’s boundaries. Eventually, these areas integrate into one great spatial unit, named as “mega city-region”. In this research, we aim to examine the hypothesis of formation and evolution of “mega city-region” in Japan as one of the most important hubs of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the world, based on trend-analysis strategy and the canonical correlation method between transportation and telecommunications indicators In order to explore some of the new telecommunications technologies’ impact on the spatial structure of the metropolitan areas. The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between telecommunications and transportation. This relation not only shows a trend contrasts with usual expectations, which thinks that the telecommunications and virtual spaces can reduce the demand for spatial mobility and it’s infrastructures- but also means that the simultaneous increase in inter-regional functional relations (both electronic and physical communications) between Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya metropolitan areas. Following this, with developing the functional integration between these areas, the distinction of previous boundaries has been faced with many difficulties. Therefore, this situation can cause to the rise of Japanese Mega city-region, named as “TOKAIDO” the greatest spatial unit in the hurt of japan. This fact may signify the rising of new possible changes in the future of urban and regional spatial structure and provide a situation in which, the current urban planning and management methods -based on industrial age spatial principals- face with many challenges. So, the restructuring of urban policy and planning in the information age may be inevitable. This relation not only shows a trend contrasts with usual expectations, which thinks that the telecommunications and virtual spaces can reduce the demand for spatial mobility and it’s infrastructures- but also means that the simultaneous increase in inter-regional functional relations (both electronic and physical communications) between Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya metropolitan areas. Following this, with developing the functional integration between these areas, the distinction of previous boundaries has been faced with many difficulties. Therefore, this situation can cause to the rise of Japanese Mega city-region, named as “TOKAIDO” the greatest spatial unit in the hurt of japan. This fact may signify the rising of new possible changes in the future of urban and regional spatial structure and provide a situation in which, the current urban planning and management methods -based on industrial age spatial principals- face with many challenges. So, the restructuring of urban policy and planning in the information age may be inevitable. This fact may signify the rising of new possible changes in the future of urban and regional spatial structure andprovide a situation in which, the current urban planning and management methods -based on industrial age spatial principals- face with many challenges. So, the restructuring of urban policy and planning in the information age may be inevitable. This relation not only shows a trend contrasts with usual expectations, which thinks that the telecommunications and virtual spaces can reduce the demand for spatial mobility and it’s infrastructures- but also means that the simultaneous increase in inter-regional functional relations (both electronic and physical communications) between Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya metropolitan areas. Following this, with developing the functional integration between these areas, the distinction of previous boundaries has been faced with many difficulties. Therefore, this situation can cause to the rise of Japanese Mega city-region, named as “TOKAIDO” the greatest spatial unit in the hurt of japan. This fact may signify the rising of new possible changes in the future of urban and regional spatial structure and provide a situation in which, the current urban planning and management methods -based on industrial age spatial principals- face with many challenges. So, the restructuring of urban policy and planning in the information age may be inevitable