Transnational Space over the Global City-Region

This chapter zooms out from the very local level of Tokyo regarding the socio-spatial patterns of transnational professional migrants to their expansion into the global city region of Tokyo. The chapter emphasizes the meso-level between local urban and global dimensions of transnational space, exploring how transnational professionals’ social practices are not limited to Tokyo’s inner core but extend beyond city limits. It discusses the concept of global city-regions, considering their increasing independence from national states and their influence on the global stage. Yet it also brings in new perspectives on how the transnational spaces are being influenced and produced in the larger global city region of Tokyo especially when the mechanism of migration industries of the transnationalism from below are considered. The chapter critiques the predominantly economic-geographical focus in global city-region research and calls for more empirical studies on the socio-spatial and socio-cultural aspects of these regions.