The geography of the Super Creative Class in the greater Tokyo area: Place of work and place of residence

Since Richard Florida's theory of the Creative Class was first introduced, many related studies of creativity have been undertaken regarding analyzing the key features and predictors of the knowledge economy. Though the notion of the Creative Class has been popular for over two decades, not many studies have analyzed Creative Class in Japan. The objective of this paper is to analyze the spatial distribution of the Super Creative Class in the Greater Tokyo Area (GTA) to better understand the key predictors that drive the spatial distribution of the Super Creative Class. Based on data from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, the spatial distribution of the Super Creative Class seemed highly uneven for the 138 cities and wards of the GTA with significant concentrations in Kawasaki, Tokyo and Tsukuba. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that 60 percent of the spatial distribution in the Super Creative Class by place of work could be best explained by the share of the labor pool. On the other hand, 73 percent of distribution of Super Creative Class by place of residence could be explained by a more traditional human capital predictor. Since a key component of the Super Creative Class differs markedly by place of work and place of residence, it seems geography is a major factor in explaining the distribution of Super Creative Class in the GTA.