Urban Development And Administration In Japan

During the twentieth century, Japan was transformed from a poor, primarily rural country into one of the world's largest industrial powers and most highly urbanised countries. Interestingly, while Japanese governments and planners borrowed carefully from the planning ideas and methods of many other countries, Japanese urban planning, urban governance and cities developed very differently from those of other developed countries. Japan's distinctive patterns of urbanisation are partly a product of the highly developed urban system, urban traditions and material culture of the pre-modern period, which remained influential until well after the Pacific War. A second key influence has been the dominance of central government in urban affairs, and its consistent prioritisation of economic growth over the public welfare or urban quality of life. André Sorensen examines Japan's urban trajectory from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, paying particular attention to the weak development of Japanese civil society, local governments, and land development and planning regulations.

This book brings together a series of contributions which examine the processes of contemporary city development and urban planning in Japan. A central theme of the book is to consider, from a range of perspectives and situations, the role, policies, methods, and effectiveness of planning in guiding city development in Japan and in addressing present and emerging urban issues. Areas of particular concern include inner city development, the urban periphery, the institutional and regulatory context of planning, and planning for urban and regional economic and technological change. In many instances, the book draws parallels between Japan's urban experience and planning approach with those of Europe and North America. Earlier versions of all but two of the chapters were published in issues of the Town Planning Review, but not only does the book have the value of bringing these contributions together in one volume, but it has also allowed the authors to revise and update their work and incorporate new developments. The editors have contributed a substantial, reflective introductory chapter and have also included a chronology of Japanese planning legislation and an annotated guide to selected English-language literature on Japanese urban and regional planning. While the main aim of the book is to provide a detailed interpretation of current urban planning issues and policies in Japan, the chapters also provide a foundation for understanding how Japanese city planning may evolve in the future.

Adding a new perspective to the current literature on decentralization in Japan, Cities, Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan, approaches the subject from an urban studies and planning approach. The essays in the collection present a cogent compilation of case studies focusing on the past, present and future of decentralization in Japan. These include small scale development in the fields such as citizen participation (machizukuri), urban form and architecture, disaster prevention and conservation of monuments. The contributors suggest that new trends are emerging after the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and assess them in the context of the country's larger socio-political system. This in-depth analysis of the development outside of Japan provides a valuable addition to students of Urban, Asian and Japanese Studies.

Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan. This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, raising important questions about the changing roles of and relations between central and local government, and between citizens and the state, in managing shared spaces. The machizukuri processes studied here can be seen as the focus of an important emerging trend toward increased civic participation in managing processes of urban change in Japan. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the machizukuri phenomenon through examination not only of theory and history, but also of case studies illustrating real changes in the institutions of place making and neighbourhood governance. Living Cities in Japan will be of particular value to readers interested in social, urban, geographical and environmental studies.