Cities, Autonomy, and Decentralization in Japan Japan is known as a country in which a potent central power reigns over a compliant hierarchy and, for planning, this has meant strong centralized government control. Nevertheless, examples of autonomy have always existed in the politics, society, and economy of Japan and thrive today in various forms, particularly within urban areas. Following the growth and subsequent collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, and in response to globalization, new trends toward local autonomy and political and economic decentralization are emerging that must be evaluated in the context of Japan’s larger political and socioeconomic setting as it becomes increasingly integrated into the global system. Cities, Autonomy, and Decentralization in Japan addresses these new initia- tives, providing a cogent compilation of case studies focusing on the past, present, and future of decentralization in Japan. These include small-scale developments in fields such as citizen participation machizukuri( ), urban form and architecture, disaster prevention, and conservation of monuments. The book offers the first in-depth analysis of this development outside Japan, approaching the subject from a unique urban studies/planning perspective as opposed to the more common political science method. With contributions from a leading group of international scholars on Japanese urban planning, Cities, Autonomy, and Decentralization in Japan provides a valuable new addition to the current English-language literature. Carola Hein is Associate Professor in the Growth and Structure of Cities Program at Bryn Mawr College, USA. Philippe Pelletier is Professor of Geography at Lumière-Lyon 2 University, France. Routledge Contemporary Japan Series 1 A Japanese Company in Crisis Ideology, strategy, and narrative Fiona Graham 2 Japan’s Foreign Aid Old continuities and new directions Edited by David Arase 3 Japanese Apologies for World War II A rhetorical study Jane W. Yamazaki 4 Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in Japan Nanette Gottlieb 5 Shinkansen From bullet train to symbol of modern Japan Christopher P. Hood 6 Small Firms and Innovation Policy in Japan Edited by Cornelia Storz 7 Cities, Autonomy, and Decentralization in Japan Edited by Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier Also by Carola Hein Carola Hein (ed.), Bruxelles, siège majeur de l’Union Européenne: Capitale de qui? Ville de qui? (Brussels: major seat of the European Union: Whose capital? Whose city?), Brussels: Cahiers de la Cambre-Architecture 5, 2006 (forthcoming). Carola Hein, The Capital of Europe: Architecture and Urban Planning for the European Union, Westport, CT: Greenwood/Praeger, 2004. Carola Hein, Jeffry Diefendorf, and Yorifusa Ishida (eds.), Rebuilding Urban Japan after 1945, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Carola Hein (main editor and author), Hauptstadt Berlin, internationaler städtebaulicher Ideenwettbewerb 1957/58 (Capital Berlin. The international urban planning idea competition 1957/58), Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1991. Also by Philippe Pelletier Philippe Pelletier (ed.), Identités territoriales en Asie orientale, Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2004. Philippe Pelletier, Idées reçues, le Japon, Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu, 2004. Philippe Pelletier, Japon, crise d’une autre modernité, Paris: Belin, 2003. Philippe Pelletier, La Japonésie, géopolitique et géographie historique de la surinsularité au Japon. Paris: CNRS Editions, Shibusawa-Claudel Prize (1998), Grand Prize of the French Marine Academy (1999). Cities, Autonomy, and Decentralization in Japan Edited by Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier I~ ~~o~f!;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2006 Editorial selection, Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier; individual chapters, the contributors Typeset in Times by Prepress Projects Ltd, Perth, UK The Open Access version of this book, available at www. tandfebooks. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cities, autonomy, and decentralization in Japan/edited by Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier p. cm. -- (Routledge contemporary Japan series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Decentralization in government – Japan. 2. Central–local government relations – Japan. 3. City planning – Japan. I. Hein, Carola. II. Pelletier, Philippe, 1956– III. Series. JS7373.A3C57 2006 320.8́5́0952–dc22 2005020303 ISBN13: 978-0-415-32603-2 (hbk) Contents List of figures ix List of tables xi List of contributors xii Preface and acknowledgments xv 1 Introduction: decentralization and the tension between global and local urban Japan 1 CAROLA HEIN AND PHILIPPE PELLETIER 2 Local initiatives and the decentralization of planning power in Japan 25 ISHIDA YORIFUSA 3 Concentration and deconcentration in the context of the Tokyo Capital Region Plan and recent cross- border networking concepts 55 NAKABAYASHI ITSUKI 4 Financial stress in the Japanese local public sector in the 1990s: situation, structural reasons, solutions 81 ALAIN SchebatH 5 Centralization, urban planning governance, and citizen participation in Japan 101 ANDRé SORENSEN 6 Machizukuri in Japan: a historical perspective on participatory community-building initiatives 128 Watanabe SHUN-ICHI J. viii Contents 7 Whose Kyoto? Competing models of local autonomy and the townscape in the old imperial capital 139 Christoph BRUMANN 8 Conclusion: decentralization policies – questioning the Japanese model 164 CAROLA HEIN AND PHILIPPE PELLETIER Select glossary of terms 182 Index 190 Figures 1.1 The Japanese prefectures 6 1.2 The Japanese urban system (2000): cities (shi) with more than 200,000 inhabitants 15 1.3 Demographic evolution of Japanese cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, 1980–2000 16 3.1 Conceptual plan for the Kanto region and Greater Tokyo (Toshi keikaku Tôkyô chihô iinkai) published in 1940 by Tokyo city planning local committee 56 3.2 Tokyo Green Space Plan 57 3.3 Land-use plan as part of the Reconstruction Plan for Tokyo 59 3.4 Sketches for regional planning as part of the reconstruction plan for Tokyo proposed by Ishikawa Hideaki 60 3.5 Comparison of development approaches proposed for the Capital Region by the National Capital Construction Committee (NCCC) 62 3.6 Conceptual plan for the development of the Capital Region by the National Capital Construction Committee (NCCC) 63 3.7 Comparison of the first National Capital Region Development (NCRD) Plan (1958) and the Greater London Plan (1944) 63 3.8 (a) Proposed concept for the second NCRD Plan. (b) The second NCRD Plan. (c) Highway network plan under the second NCRD Plan 66 3.9 (a) The changing concept of metropolitan structure under the third NCRD Plan: from unipolar to multipolar. (b) The third NCRD Plan. (c) Highway network plan under the third NCRD Plan 69 3.10 Conceptual draft plan for Capital Region Renewal Plan 70 3.11 (a) Conceptual drawing of the fourth NCRD Plan (1986): concentrated deconcentration concept for the Capital Region with a multinuclear sub-region. (b) The fourth NCRD Plan 70 3.12 Spatial relationship between the multipolar structure of the fourth NCRD Plan (1986) and the creation of sub-centers of the Long-term Plan for the Tokyo Metropolis 73 x List of figures 3.13 Conceptual drawing of the fifth NCRD Plan 76 3.14 Conceptual drawing for the Tokyo Megalopolis in 2050, proposed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government 77 4.1 Evolution of the sources of revenues of the Japanese prefectures and municipalities from 1970 to 2000 83 7.1 Territories of chô and jichi rengôkai 144 7.2 Area surrounding the site proposed for the Pont des Arts replica 147 8.1 Sites under consideration for possible relocation of the national capital of Japan 175 Tables 4.1 Total amount of local debt and amount of local debt compared with the GNP 84 4.2 Evolution of the ratio of annuity to local revenues 85 4.3 Ratio of mandatory burden borne by Japanese local communities 86 7.1 Opinions of Kyoto citizens on townscape issues and measures that affect the value of and private control over real-estate property 157 Contributors Christoph Brumann has been a Lecturer in the Department of Ethnology at the University of Cologne, Germany, since 1999. He received his PhD in Ethnology in 1997 from the University of Cologne after completing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in anthropology, Japanology, and Sinology at the University of Cologne and Sophia University, Tokyo. In 1998–9 he completed an ethnographic field study in Kyoto as a Research Fellow of the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Osaka. He was the recipient of the Offermann-Hergarten award (Germany) in 1999 for Die Kunst des Teilens (The art of sharing). Carola Hein is Associate Professor at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in the Growth and Structure of Cities Program. She has published and lectured widely on topics in contemporary and historical architectural and urban planning. From 1995 to 1999 she was a Visiting Researcher at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Kogakuin University, focusing on the reconstruction of Japanese cities after World War II and the Western influence on Japanese urban planning. Her recent publications