With its roots in the cities and areas of the Tohoku region, the Tohoku Office is working on surveys, planning proposals, and policy and project evaluations that target every aspect of land use, transport, regional promotion, and the environment.
Having passed through the 20th century urbanization, suburbanization, and motorization in the cities, the Tohoku region is now facing various urban issues such as lowering of regional vitality due to the anticipated population decline. It demands a planning framework and specific policy to support the continued growth of the region in the new century.
Considering these issues, the Tohoku Office, in collaboration with regional administration, universities, economic circles, and non-profit organizations, is aiming at developing planning and policy design for creating sustainable Tohoku regional society in the 21st century. The Office stocks various types of data including existing statistical data, traffic data from person-trip surveys, etc., city planning related data. It welcomes inquiries from people regarding these datasets.

■Main research themes

• Research related to regional planning aimed at sustainable growth
• Research related to the formulation of comprehensive plans and city master plans
• Research related to comprehensive transport planning
• Research and the development of procedures related to analysis and evaluation of diverse transport policies
• Research and the development of models relating to behavior theory and behavior modeling
• Research related to project evaluation and policy evaluation for public projects
• Formulation of planning that incorporates public participation into urban development, etc.
• Development of presentation techniques, development of data analysis procedures using GIS