Sustainable Regeneration of a Car-dependent City: The Case of Toyama toward a Compact City

Toyama Prefecture is one of three prefectures that comprise the Hokuriku Region at the Sea of Japan side of central Japan. Toyama City is its prefectural capital, and the second-largest city in Hokuriku after Kanazawa City (Fig. 10-1). About 420,000 people live in the city after the merger of seven municipalities in 2005, and the population of its metropolitan area is about 540,000.