The George Pepler International Award
A study into the
practice of machizukuri
(community building)
in Japan
Lorayne Woodend, BSc., (Hons.), MA (Dist.), September 2013
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
The community;
Strong, quiet, calm roots are freed.
Nurtured, it flourished.
LW, September 1st 2013
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2013
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Submission Statement
This report has been submitted as part of the requirements of the George Pepler
International Award 2012. It is my own work and where the work of others has been used it
has been credited.
Note on Japanese words and names
Where full names are used, Japanese names have been written as they are in England, with
the given name coming first, followed by the family name. Otherwise, the family name with
the honorific Japanese suffix ‘-san’ is used.
All other Japanese words are accompanied with a translation or explanation at their first use.
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks to the following for their contributions to the undertaking of this investigation;
Organisations
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The Royal Town Planning Institute
The Japan Foundation
South Lakeland District Council
Nagoya Urban Institute
Owariasahi Healthy Cities Office (Owariasahi City Government)
Fukuoka Prefectural University
Kamakura City Government
Japan Local Government Centre
Individuals
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Paul Beach of Dowdales School
Kirstie Sobue
Dawn-Hunter Ellis of DHE Associates
Gavin Parker (RTPI Director of Professional Standards)
Hideki Koizumi of Tokyo University
Yayoi Niwa
Akito Murayama of Nagoya University
Nigel and Shinobu Stott of EigoCentre, Fukuoka
Takenori Yamasaki, Vice Governor, Fukuoka Prefecture
Nobuo Mishima of Saga University
Nakamura-san of Hizen Hamashuku Mizuto Machinaminokai, NPO
The Community of Hizen Hama, Kashima, Saga Prefecture
Ueki Kouta of Groundwork Fukuoka
Takahiro Kuze, Inuyama Councillor
Susie Kondo
Shizuka Hashimoto of Kyoto University
Anri Makino of Kyoto Machizukuri Centre
Maiko Abe of Kyoto Machizukuri Centre
Konishi ‘Peter’ Hiroshi of Shutoku Gakku community, Kyoto
Masamichi Takenaka of Japan Tourism
Ayako Fujii
Professors Shuji Yamada, Noriko Takai-Tokunaga and Yoshifumi Fujii and their
students at Bunkyo University (Shonan Campus, Chigasaki)
Yoshihiko, Sayuri and Imari Minami
Junya Kaneko
My family, Jeff Wall; Jack, Alayne, Carolyn and Maisie Woodend, Kyle Pocklington
and Des and Angela Ewing
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Abstract
This report details the study and subsequent findings resulting from the 2012 George Pepler
International Award. The study used a qualitative approach of interviews, discussion and
observation to explore the Japanese concept of machizukuri (community building).
Machizukuri began in the 1960s and 1970s as a civil society reaction to negative
environmental and social consequences of rapid economic growth and has evolved to
become a diverse approach to wider community action.
The study visited a variety of locations and participants in a range of machizukuri activities
across Japan, specifically seeking to explore; the key issues is machizukuri used to address;
the relationships within community groups and between community groups and local
government; whether machizukuri is devolving genuine power to the local level; what
comparisons there are between machizukuri and aspects of Localism such as
neighbourhood planning and; what lessons that can be learned from machizukuri practices
and experiences in Japan. The study found that;

Machizukuri is used to address a wide range of local issues in a variety of different
ways;

There is evidence of strong relationships within communities and between
communities and local governments. There are also other relationships at play,
between communities and Neighbourhood Associations, NPOs, academics,
professional planning consultants and architects. There is also evidence of some
familiar issues regarding difficulties in relationships within communities, between
communities and local governments and between communities and the private
sector;

There is evidence that machizukuri does empower communities and is aiding the
devolution of power to the local level, however, there is also evidence that
communities in Japan have on the one hand had greater autonomy in some respects
than their English counterparts for many years and on the other, have an inherent
strength as a result of cultural and historical factors;

Certain types and aspects of machizukuri have similarities to Neighbourhood
Planning and machizukuri as a whole relates to activities that are considered to
represent Localism in England;

There are a number of lessons that can be galvanised from the findings and
experiences in Japan resulting from this study.
As such, it was concluded that the study had been successful in achieving its aims. It
identifies a number of recommendations and opportunities for further research.
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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Contents
Submission Statement ....................................................................................................... 2
Note on Japanese words and names................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 3
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 4
Contents .............................................................................................................................. 5
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 8
The George Pepler International Award ....................................................................................... 8
The Japan Foundation..................................................................................................................... 8
What is machizukuri and why study it? ......................................................................................... 9
This study ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Report outline.................................................................................................................................. 12
2.
Japanese Context ...................................................................................................... 13
Geographical and political background....................................................................................... 13
Key issues ....................................................................................................................................... 14
Anniversary of British-Japan relations ........................................................................................ 15
The Japanese Planning System .................................................................................................. 16
3
Methodology and approach ...................................................................................... 18
4.
Research activities and findings............................................................................... 22
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 22
Tokyo................................................................................................................................................ 22
Nagoya ............................................................................................................................................. 25
Owariasahi ...................................................................................................................................... 29
Fukuoka ........................................................................................................................................... 32
Kashima ........................................................................................................................................... 35
Tagawa ............................................................................................................................................ 40
Inuyama ........................................................................................................................................... 41
Kyoto ................................................................................................................................................ 45
Kamakura and Chigasaki .............................................................................................................. 52
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 56
5.
Discussion.................................................................................................................. 58
Key issues ....................................................................................................................................... 58
Relationships................................................................................................................................... 59
Power ............................................................................................................................................... 60
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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Comparisons with Localism and Neighbourhood Planning ..................................................... 61
Lessons and recommendations ................................................................................................... 62
6.
Conclusion, evaluation and recommendations ....................................................... 64
Overall conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 64
Evaluation ........................................................................................................................................ 64
Opportunities for further research ................................................................................................ 66
7.
Dissemination ............................................................................................................ 68
8.
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 69
9.
Appendices ................................................................................................................ 71
Appendix 1: George Pepler International Award Proposal ............................................ 72
Appendix 2: Trip schedule ............................................................................................... 75
Appendix 3: Sample questions ........................................................................................ 76
Appendix 4: Evidence of inclusion in Cumbria Planning Training Scheme International
Planning Event – event flier and agenda ......................................................................... 77
Appendix 5: Evidence of dissemination to South Lakeland District Council staff –
extract from staff magazine.............................................................................................. 79
Appendix 6: Michi-no-eki (road station), Munakata and Green Infrastructure in
Fukuoka ............................................................................................................................. 81
About the author ............................................................................................................... 82
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Map showing main islands and cities of Japan…………………………………….p.16
Figure 2: Functions and activities of Nagoya Urban Institute………………………………...p.26
Figure 3: 3D model of Nagoya, Nagoya Urban Institute……………………………………...p.27
Figure 4: Community Salon, Endoji Shopping Street, Nagoya………………………………p.28
Figure 5: Restored historic house in use as a café, Shikemichi……………………………..p.29
Figure 6: Rice paddy depicting Owariasahi Healthy City mascot, Asapy…………………..p.32
Figure 7: Fukuoka Prefectural Government Building………………………………………….p.34
Figure 8: Restored former samurai property,
Kashima………………………………………..p.37
Figure 9: Nakamura-san and Mishima-san in the restored former samurai property, Kashima
………………………………………………………………………………………………………p.37
Figure 10: Restored sake brewery, left, and the old Edo period Nagasaki to Kokura road,
Kashima……………………………………………………………………………………………p.38
Figure 11: Café, shop and art space, left, and community event in historic thatched buildings
………………………………………………………………………………………………………p.39
Figure 12: Young family provided with a home through restoration of a historic thatched
property……………………………………………………………………………………p.39
Figure 13: Governance and decision-making structure for the historic preservation of
Hizenhama………………………………………………………………………………..p.40
Figure 14: New shops and businesses in historic castle town buildings, Inuyama………..p.43
Figure 15: Interpretation board in Inuyama’s castle town area………………………………p.44
Figure 16: Recently built festival float garage / community centre plus floats, Inuyama….p.44
Figure 17: View of Inuyama Castle along castle street, currently compromised by social
welfare building, left and outside Inuyama Castle itself……………………………..p.45
Figure 18: Kyoto Centre for Community Collaboration……………………………………….p.49
Figure 19: With Makino-san, Konishi-san and Abe-san at Shutoku Gakku Community Centre
………………………………………………………………………………………………………p.52
Figure 20: Panorama from the roof of Kamakura City Hall…………………………………..p.54
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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1. Introduction
The George Pepler International Award
1.1
The George Pepler International Award is a biennial award presented by the Royal
Town Planning Institute (RTPI) to a UK planner who wishes to study an aspect of
planning in another country (or a planner from overseas who wishes to do the same
in the UK) for a period of 3-4 weeks. Planners need not be members of the RTPI but
must be under the age of 30 at the time of application to be eligible for the award.
Applicants must submit a study proposal including an itinerary and a breakdown of
the costs of the trip. The RTPI nominates a judging panel of 3 RTPI representatives
to select the successful candidate who is awarded a sum of £1,500 to cover the costs
of undertaking the proposed study. This funding is paid in two installments; £1000
being paid on presentation of the award and the remainder on submission of a report
detailing the trip and its findings (RTPI, 2012).
1.2
This report is the outcome of the 2012 Award, the application for which put forward a
proposal to study the concept of machizukuri (community building) in Japan for a
period of just over three weeks, inclusive of travel. The original proposal can be found
at Appendix 1.
The Japan Foundation
1.3
In addition to the George Pepler Award, this study has benefited from further backing
from The Japan Foundation. The Japan Foundation Study Support Programme offers
financial support to specific research proposals relating to Japan, covering the cost of
flights to a maximum of £500, awarded on receipt of a summary report of the study.
1.4
This additional funding released some of the George Pepler International Award
monies, enabling the printing of business cards and the hire of a mobile ‘phone for
use in Japan (many UK mobile ‘phones are not compatible with Japanese mobile
‘phone networks). This made participation in the Japanese custom of business-card
exchanging possible and meant that contact could be easily made with interviewees
and others involved in the study so that any necessary changes to the schedule
could be communicated more easily as well as providing additional personal security.
Additionally, the extra funding meant that unexpected accommodation costs for a
homestay arrangement that fell through due to the personal circumstances of the
host family could be covered, as could the expenses of three very kind ladies who
provided translation services at expenses-only rates, opening up opportunities that it
may not have been possible to take otherwise.
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What is machizukuri and why study it?
1.5
Machizukuri can be most readily translated as community (machi) building/making
(zukuri) (Watanabe, 2006), but there is no single English term that fully encompasses
its meaning. The term was coined in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s to refer to a civil
society reaction to the negative environmental and social consequences of rapid
economic growth and the centralised control of the development associated with that
growth. Today, the term machizukuri is used, in the relatively limited English
language literature on the topic at least, to refer to and encompass a wide range of
concepts and activities, with an equally wide range of goals, actors and processes.
These can include (but far from exclusively) community involvement in planning and
the work of citizens’ environmental and social movements in a diverse range of
community, social, economic, environmental and urban change issues.
1.6
Although machizukuri has been practiced in Japan for some decades, as mentioned
above, there is relatively limited literature on the concept, especially in languages
other than Japanese. However, a number of texts have been published in English
relatively recently such as Hein & Pelletier (2006), Sorensen & Funck (2007), Healey
(2009) Vinken, Nishimura, White & Deguchi (2010) and attention was drawn to the
concept in an article on Cliff Hague’s ‘World View’ section on Planning Daily (Hague,
2012).
1.7
Coupled with an existing interest in planning as an international topic, sparked by the
European and International Planning module on the JDLMA1 course; an existing
interest in Japan resulting from previous travel to the country and an interest in
planning in Japan initiated by articles by Echanove (2008) and Parker (2010), it was
reading Hague’s (2012) article that provided the inspiration for the study documented
in this report.
1.8
Hague’s article explicitly identified that there are comparisons to be drawn between
machizukuri and Localism and neighbourhood planning. Similarities between
machizukuri and Localism and neighbourhood planning were also apparent from
reading of examples of machizukuri in the other texts mentioned above. For example,
machizukuri ordinances and District Plans are both optional planning tools that can
1
Joint Distance Learning Master of Arts in Town and Country Planning
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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be prepared by communities, with public participation. They sit alongside existing
planning documents such as municipal masterplans2.
1.9
In England, The Localism Act, which came into force in November 2011, presents
some key changes for planning. Communities can now prepare their own
Neighbourhood Plans (provided they are in general conformity with the Local Plan
drawn up by the Local Authority), which will be given significant weight in planning
decisions and can include provision for policy setting and allocating land for new
development. Additionally, Local Authorities now have less prescription to adhere to
in the preparation of their Local Plans given the removal of planning policy
statements and the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework. The
changes are intended to devolve more planning powers to the local level, enabling
Local Authorities and communities to include in their plans what they feel is most
appropriate for their area.
1.10
Local Authority Planners in England are beginning to see significant changes in their
work as communities begin to play out the provisions of the Localism Act as it relates
to Neighbourhood Planning in particular, through the Neighbourhood Planning
Regulations, and they face a steep learning curve as they adapt to the new
requirements. The Localism Act also seeks to encourage and enable communities to
take on a greater role in the wider day-to-day ‘running’ of their area through a range
of activities.
1.11
Furthermore, the existing literature highlights the importance of machizukuri for
planning more generally. Watanabe, (2006) suggests that machizukuri “will be
responsible for no less than changing the face of urban planning in the twenty-first
century”. Watanabe does not identify whether this statement refers to urban planning
in Japan only, but nevertheless, machizukuri is clearly thought of as being of key
relevance to and for planning. Sorensen & Funck (2007) agree, stating that
machizukuri is “a very important phenomenon” that “should be better understood”
and which represents the basis of “a paradigm shift in Japanese planning
governance”. Key questions are raised by the existing literature including whether
machizukuri activities are genuinely enabling citizens to have greater power and a
greater voice – a declared aim of Localism - and how machizukuri is contributing to
the growth of civil society and the liveability and sustainability of human settlements
(Sorensen & Funck, 2007).
2
District plans tend to be prepared in urban areas whereas machizukuri ordinances tend to be used in rural
areas where higher level planning policy/regulation is often weak.
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
1.12
2013
Whilst there are many differences between England and Japan, there are also some
key similarities. Both are industrialised, developed, relatively densely populated,
island nations; they are similar demographically, particularly in terms of having an
ageing population and have been subject to recent decentralisation policies with the
aim of devolving powers, including in relation to planning, to more local levels. Both
are home to generally educated and environmentally and socially concerned
populations. However, whilst machizukuri has been practiced in Japan for several
decades, Localism has only recently come formally into play in England.
1.13
Whilst research into machizukuri is being undertaken in Japan, and whilst some key
early examples have become famous across Japan as models for community
planning (Healey, 2009) there is limited wider knowledge of the concept and limited
machizukuri literature in languages other than Japanese, offering little opportunity for
English planners to learn about or from machizukuri experiences. As such it was
considered worthwhile to explore whether machizukuri offers any insight into what we
might expect to see in England and what lessons it might have to offer our planners
as well as expanding on existing literature.
This study
1.14
With the overall objective of gaining an understanding of and lessons from
machizukuri to aid in the understanding of and possibilities for Localism, civil society,
community engagement and Neighbourhood Planning, this study sought provide an
insight into how a practiced concept similar to Localism works in a nation with
similarities to ours at a crucial period when English planners’ roles are evolving to
accommodate the provisions of Neighbourhood Planning and when Local Authorities’
and communities’ roles are changing to reflect the wider Localism Act. A further aim
was to add to the existing research and literature in English on machizukuri. This is
particularly useful in times of economic change and decentralisation, factors affecting
both Japan and the UK, to help gain a fuller understanding of the diverse concept of
machizukuri and the lessons it might have to offer.
1.14
In order to do this, a range of local government representatives, academics and
community groups in several locations across Japan were visited, and interviews,
observation and discussion were used to explore;
1.
2.
The key issues is machizukuri used to address;
The relationships within community groups and between community groups
and local government;
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
3.
4.
5.
2013
Whether machizukuri is devolving genuine power to the local level;
What comparisons there are between machizukuri and aspects of Localism
such as neighbourhood planning and;
What lessons can be learned from machizukuri practices and experiences in
Japan.
Report outline
1.16
This report provides a detailed account of the study set out above. Firstly,
information on the Japanese context provided; followed by a detailed study
methodology. The main section of the report then takes each location in turn,
explaining in detail the research activities undertaken there and identifying the
information gathered. Discussion and conclusions sections follow, bringing together
the overall findings of the study and the key messages taken, demonstrating how the
study performed in terms of achieving its aims, reflecting on the study’s strengths and
weaknesses and setting out suggestions for action in light of the findings of the study,
as well as opportunities for further research. The final section details how the findings
of the report have been or will be disseminated, in accordance with the requirements
of the George Pepler International Award and Japan Foundation Grant.
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2. Japanese Context
Geographical and political background
2.1
Japan is an island nation in east Asia with a land area of around 377,944km2 made
up of four main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, although there are
almost 7000 islands in total (see Figure 1).
2.2
Although there are clear differences in climate between the far north and far south
of the country, Japan has a generally temperate climate. However, it has far more
defined seasons than the UK as well as greater extremes of heat in the summer
months, cold in the winter months and a fairly predictable rainy season in June and
July.
2.3
Japan has a population of approximately 126 million people and a population
density of around 337.1/km2, the vast majority of which is focused on the coast due
to the mountainous terrain and heavily forested of around 70% of the country. The
population consists almost exclusively (98-99%) of Japanese due in no small part to
the country’s strict immigration rules. Japan’s capital is Tokyo, one of the world’s
largest metropolitan areas with a population of over 30 million.
2.4
Japan, like the United Kingdom, operates under a Constitutional Monarchy and is
currently governed by a coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New
Komeito Party. The current Emperor is Emperor Akihito, and the current Prime
Minister is Shinzo Abe. Japan is divided into 8 regions and 47 prefectures, each
with its own Governor and legislature, although four of these are slightly different,
Tokyo is a ‘metropolis’, Kyoto and Osaka are ‘urban prefectures’ and Hokkaido is a
‘territory’.
2.5
Beneath prefectural level, there is a fairly complex administrative structure
compared to that of the UK. There are sub-prefectures, various types of cities,
districts, towns, wards and villages. A more detailed breakdown of Japan’s
administrative structure can be found online, for example here, but for the purposes
of this study, in addition to prefectures, it is only necessary to understand that cities
have a significant degree of autonomy and are subdivided into various lower
administrative levels. The largest cities are subdivided into wards; other, smaller
cities are split into districts. Wards and districts are further split into towns (machi or
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cho), which also have a degree of autonomy in relation to certain issues, depending
on which city they are in and which type of city they are in.
2.6
Machi and cho relate to the historic community organisational method in which
small groups of sometimes fewer than 10 households formed the lowest tier of
administrative unit, the cho. Several of these groups then formed the next tier, the
district. Districts also often related to the areas covered by a particular school and
so are often referred to as School Districts (gakku). This method still operates today
and is particularly relevant in the case of Kyoto, where school districts were given
greater autonomy than in other cities. Also of relevance here is the Neighbourhood
Association. This is the equivalent of the parish council in the UK. In Japan, almost
all households are members of their local Neighbourhood Association and pay a
monthly membership fee. Neighbourhood Associations operate in both urban and
rural areas and have wide-ranging roles that go beyond those of their English
counterparts, from acting as a link between residents and the local government to
assisting with family and community events such as weddings, funerals and matsuri
(festivals).
2.7
It is important to note that in order for a settlement to become a city in Japan, it
must meet criteria such as a certain population, often as low as 30,000, thus there
are many cities in Japan that have their own governance and a degree of autonomy
but which are far smaller in population than many towns in the UK. They often feel
even smaller due to their setting and the fact they were often created by the
amalgamation of villages and towns and thus have undeveloped areas in between
areas of development. Districts in Japan are also much smaller than English Local
Authority districts and relate to individual neighbourhoods.
Key issues
2.8
In addition to economic issues associated with the global financial situation, key
issues in Japan include the threat of a range of natural disasters, including
earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions; an ageing population and a very low
birth rate resulting in a declining total population.
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Kyoto
2013
.
Figure 1: Map showing main islands and cities of Japan
Source: http://www.facts-about-japan.com/maps.html
Anniversary of British-Japan relations
2.9
2013 is the 400th anniversary of diplomatic, trading, scientific and cultural relations
between Britain and Japan in 1613, when Samurai Tokugawa Ietyasu wrote to King
James I that “Though separated by ten thousand leagues of clouds and waves, our
territories are as it were close to each other” and King James I replied that “for ever
and ever we will, we avow, communicate with Japan without any sense of distinction or
separation”. Events across England and Japan in 2013 celebrate a “spirit of discovery
and mutual regard that has inspired many successful collaborations and a remarkable
friendship between two societies on opposite sides of the world” (Japan400, 2013). It
is poignant that the study documented in this report, undertaken in this anniversary
year, seeks to identify lessons between the two countries, as well as contributing to
creating new research, local government and tourism links in the process. However, it
is important and relevant to this study to note that Japan was largely closed to foreign
influences until 1853 and had a very strict foreign relations policy which forbade any
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2013
foreigner to enter the country or any Japanese to leave. There is still very limited
immigration today.
2.10 Nevertheless, strong links remain between the UK and Japan, from being members of
the G8, to connections through tourism, education and academia, to the work of
organisations such as The Japan Foundation and The Japan Local Government
Centre.
The Japanese Planning System
2.11
The Japanese Planning system is more complex than that of the UK, particularly in
terms of the number of tiers and types of plans and the way they interlink.
2.12
At national level, there are two overarching laws, the National Land Use Planning Act
and the National Spatial Planning Act. The National Land Use Planning Act requires
the national government to develop a general plan covering the whole of Japan. It
also requires prefectural governments to develop a Land Use General Plan for each
prefecture which divides the land into the following five categories: urban area,
agricultural area, forest area, natural parks area and natural conservation area. Each
area is governed by a respective law, for example, urban area is governed by the
City Planning Act and agricultural land by the Act on Establishment of Agricultural
Promotion Regions. Each law is administered by different section of the national
government.
2.13
The National Spatial Planning Act is a successor of the Comprehensive National
Land Development Act which led infrastructure development in Japan after WWII, for
example, Shinkansen (bullet train) lines, motorways, bridges, dams, etc.
2.14
The City Planning Act is effective only in urban areas which are designated through
The National Land Use Planning Act. Roughly 25% of Japan's land is designated as
urban area (although as noted at paragraph 2.7, cities in Japan can be as small as
market towns in England and often feel even smaller and more rural due to their
character). The City Planning Act requires prefectural governments and local
governments to develop city master plans. Prefectural governments usually develop
a master plan only for urban areas within their jurisdiction. In this way, Prefectural
Urban Master Plans are not comprehensive. Local governments develop their
master plans on their own. Some governments plan beyond urban areas if they feel
it is important for them to show their vision for the whole jurisdiction, although the City
Planning Act is not applicable in areas outside of cities. Urban Planning Practice
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2013
Policy is issued by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to help
planning officials in prefectural and local governments to conduct their duties in plan
making.
2.15
District Plans are optional and can be developed by the local government and/or the
community, under the City Planning Act. District Plans generally include items that
can be implemented through the City Planning Act and Building Standard Act such as
building height, land uses, design, plans for new small streets and parks etc. and are
used to ensure that new development is appropriate to the local area. District Plans
do not include items that cannot be implemented through the City Planning Act and
Building Standard Act, thus, they are focused on physical building and the local
infrastructure and environment. District Plans must be consistent with the relevant
city master plan and where a community proposes a District Plan, the local
government must approve it.
2.16
There are also machizukuri plans and machizukuri ordinances, which can also be
developed at a local level to overcome the limitations of higher level plans. The
government will receive the plan, which is developed by the community, examine it
and implement any provisions in the plan that can be implemented by the
government. Other aspects will be implemented by residents, businesses and
community groups.
2.17
In rural areas, outside of cities, towns (machi) and villages (son) (or groups of
villages and hamlets in very rural areas), land-use regulation is very limited and is
governed in many cases, only by the Acts relating to the readjustment of agricultural
land. Local communities and governments in these areas can make their own locallevel plan if they wish and have their own mayor and Council and some degree of
autonomy relating to certain issues. On the one hand the land in these areas might
be quite heavily developed compared to what would be called ‘rural’ or ‘countryside’
in England but equally, there are areas where development is sparse and villages are
remote.
2.18
There does seem to be some overlap, or similarity at least, between machizukuri
plans and ordinances and District Plans, although machizukuri ordinances and plans
are particularly useful in rural areas where there the City Planning Act does not apply
and where there is very limited regulation and District Plans apply to more urban
areas where the City Planning Act is in force.
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3 Methodology and approach
Introduction
3.1
This section sets out the approach to preparing for and planning the study visit to
Japan before detailing the methodology employed to conduct the study itself.
3.2
The study employed the qualitative approaches of interview, discussion and
observation to broaden understanding of the concept of machizukuri and to explore;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
3.3
The key issues machizukuri is used to address;
The relationships within community groups and between community groups
and local government;
Whether machizukuri is providing genuine power to the local level;
Comparisons between machizukuri and aspects of Localism such as
neighbourhood planning;
Lessons that can be learned from machizukuri practices and experiences in
Japan.
The study deviated in some ways from the detail of the original proposal (Appendix
1), primarily due to the availability of contacts in Japan and the logistics of
accommodating individual contacts’ availability, but also because further research
opportunities arose during the period between submitting the proposal and
undertaking the trip. The basic proposal to however was fully adhered to and was in
fact enhanced by the changes made.
Preparation and planning for the research trip
3.4
Secondary research sources (primarily Sorensen & Funck, 2007 and Hein &
Pelletier, 2006) were utilised to set the context and provide an initial understanding of
machizukuri, firstly when putting together the original proposal when applying for the
George Pepler International Award and more extensively in the year between being
granted the award and leaving for Japan. This research also served to add a further
layer to the analysis of the primary data collected during the trip and to inform the
development of answers to the research questions and the conclusions and
recommendations from the study.
3.5
Even in these days of ever-advancing communications technology, making contact
with appropriate people in Japan and putting a schedule in place that accommodated
a variety of people’s availability and allowed enough time in order to manage the
logistics of the trip and still enable machizukuri in a range of destinations and
contexts to be explored adequately was challenging. Contacts were made through
existing channels wherever possible; Japanese teacher Kirstie Sobue who spent
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2013
many years living in Japan; ex-colleague Dawn Hunter-Ellis who is heavily involved
in the Lake District Japan Forum and Paul Beach, a teacher at Dowdales School,
Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria who organises school exchanges with Japan were all
instrumental in providing links to key contacts in Japan. In addition, two academic
contacts were discovered through their contributions to the texts used in the
secondary research, and were contacted directly via their respective University
websites; two further academic contacts were made by chance whilst in Japan and
contributed significantly to the study and the staff at Kyoto Machizukuri Centre were
contacted directly via their website.
3.6
Some initial key contacts had been made in advance of submitting the award
proposal to ensure that they were appropriate contacts for the study and were willing
and able to be involved having been informed of the aims of the study. However, as
further research was undertaken and additional contacts were made or existing
contacts came to full fruition, further opportunities arose. The visits to Owariasahi,
Fukuoka and Bunkyo University were added to the schedule in this way whilst the
proposed visit to Shimokitazawa was removed from the schedule set out in the
original proposal due to the search for an appropriate contact there proving unfruitful,
time limitations and the fact that other destinations, as a result of the lack of a
contact, offered greater research opportunities. Additionally, the opportunity to visit
Kashima arose whilst in Japan.
3.7
Flights to Japan were booked very shortly after receiving notification of having won
the award to help ensure that the budget was kept to by capitalising on lower
advanced booking prices and to provide a starting point for preparing the schedule.
Once it had been established exactly what research opportunities would exist
through the contacts at each location and that all contacts were appropriate to the
study and willing and able to be involved in the research, the schedule for the trip
was drawn up primarily on the basis of time needed at each location to make the
most of the opportunity, what was most convenient for all contacts involved and also
ease of travel i.e. visiting destinations in a logical order to avoid wasting time
wherever possible. As there were several destinations and numerous contacts, this
was challenging and required significant amounts of time and effort to be spent on
considering travel times ensuring they were realistic and allowed for eating, sleeping
and finding the way to unfamiliar locations as well as on email correspondence
discussing and confirming arrangements. However, this did prove to be an important
investment as it ensured that the trip ran smoothly without any difficulties arising. The
final schedule can be found at Appendix 2.
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3.8
2013
Prior to leaving for Japan, arrangements were made with the contacts to employ
interpreters where necessary and business cards were printed up in Japanese.
Additionally, a booking was made for hire of a mobile ‘phone and contact details
were distributed to all contacts to ensure that getting in touch with when needed and
being easily contactable by them was not a problem. These also proved to be
valuable investments.
Primary research
3.8
The primary research was planned as a series of interviews / discussions with
contacts. Using the secondary research as a guide, a short list of questions (a
maximum of 10) were prepared for each contact. The questions were largely the
same for each contact, but did differ slightly depending on their role and type of
involvement in machizukuri. An example set of questions can be found at Appendix
3. One month prior to leaving for Japan, the questions were sent out to respective
contacts, in Japanese where necessary, enabling them to prepare for
interviews/discussions and allowing for time to clarify any points in advance of the
trip. Some contacts chose to provide written answers to the questions in advance of
the trip, which they then expanded on during the visit.
3.9
Once in Japan, guided by the circumstances of each meeting and the preferences of
the contacts, the majority of the interviews/discussions were relatively informal. Most
took the form of a discussion or the contact beginning by relaying information on the
basis of the questions provided and then inviting further questions, rather than a
formal interview. Some consisted of a discussion / interview only but around half
included a walking tour / site visits. One meeting also included a seminar and one
included participation in a specially arranged University presentation activity session.
3.10
Allowing the contact to guide the formality of the interview / discussion was
appropriate as although background knowledge of Japanese culture assisted, just
how formal any of the meetings might be was largely unknown in advance, partly due
to language and cultural differences. There was also a need to follow Japanese
customs in terms of politeness and hierarchy, thus it was appropriate to allow the
contacts to dictate the formality and nature of the meetings to a significant degree.
3.11
It had been intended to record the interviews, but instead, notes were made of
pertinent points and initial thoughts stemming from them. This was more appropriate
to the more informal nature of the interviews / discussions and additionally, many
contacts had prepared extensive material including presentations, typed responses
and other general information that aided in answering the questions posed. Contacts
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had gone to great lengths, committing significant time and other resources (including
staff and financial) to the visit, providing excellent Japanese hospitality and insights
into Japanese culture in addition to providing extensive supplementary information
and documentation. The extent of this was such that two large packages of
supporting documents had to be posted back to the UK at significant cost as they
could not be carried and a further bundle caused luggage weight restrictions on the
return flight to be breeched. This supporting information however was incredibly
valuable in terms of answering the questions asked of contacts and aiding
understanding of contextual factors, planning issues and machizukuri activities.
3.12
Notes and photographs were taken to record examples of machizukuri activities
during the walking tours / sites visits, seminar and presentation session. Further
relevant information was also gathered and further relevant photographs taken
outside of formal research time.
Rationale
3.13
The qualitative method of interviews, discussion and observation was appropriate for
this study because machizukuri is social and conceptual. The aspects of machizukuri
that this study sought to investigate required the experiences, thoughts and feelings
about machizukuri of those involved in a range of machizukuri activities to be
explored. This could not be adequately measured through quantitative means or fully
explored through a questionnaire. The employed approach allowed a rapport to be
built between the researcher and the contact. It also allowed for additional questions
to be asked by the researcher or for additional information to be provided by the
contact as came to mind or became appropriate during the discussion. The chosen
approach also offered further benefits by default including providing first hand
experiences of the machizukuri examples and planning issues discussed and a good
background and contextual knowledge of the local areas involved.
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4. Research activities and findings
Introduction
4.1
This section sets out the key findings of the study. The findings are presented by
location in the same order that each location was visited during the trip (the final trip
schedule can be found at Appendix 2). Each respective section sets out the context
of that part of the trip, detailing the specific research activities undertaken, before
highlighting the key findings resulting from those activities.
Tokyo
4.2
At the beginning of the visit to Japan a meeting was held in Japan’s capital, Tokyo,
with Hideki Koizumi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Engineering
at the University of Tokyo. Koizumi-san was contacted as his work was referenced in
Sorensen & Funck (2007) and because the information about him on the Tokyo
University website identified that his research interests were of relevance to this
study.
4.3
It was agreed in advance that the meeting would involve a discussion to provide
background and contextual information on machizukuri in order to set the scene for
the rest of the trip and to consolidate the secondary research already undertaken by
way of reading relevant texts. The meeting was held at the Keio Plaza Hotel in
Shinjuku at the suggestion of Koizumi-san.
4.4
Koizumi-san gave a presentation entitled Machizukuri: Towards Sustainable
Community Design and Governance which set out the historical development of
machizukuri since it began in the 1960s and 1970s as a citizen reaction to
environmental problems resulting from rapid development and industrialisation,
through its evolution to represent a diverse range of issues relating to improving
environments and the liveability of neighbourhoods.
4.5
The case of Mano, a neighbourhood in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, is considered to be
a pioneer of machizukuri, particularly as it relates to machizukuri in town planning.
During the 1950s, Mano had some of the worst living environments in Kobe and by
the late 1960s, when problems of fumes and smog were most severe, the community
were motivated to act to improve their living environment.
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4.6
2013
With assistance from private planning practitioners and support from the Mayor, the
community worked together, including residential, business and industrial partners, to
set out the local problems, possible solutions and a vision for the area. A vision,
zoning plan and housing project were put forward to Kobe’s city government.
4.7
The plans were finally implemented through new measures introduced by the
National Government, at least partly as a result of the Mano community’s work.
These included a subsidy scheme, which began in 1978 for local governments to
implement small improvement projects relating to creating liveable environments and
provision under a 1980 revision to the City Planning Act, which gave local
governments and/or communities the right to prepare a District Plan.
4.8
Following the Mano case, progressive local governments saw similar machizukuri
projects taking place in other locations across Japan, such as Setagaya ward in
Tokyo, supported by further provisions such as the introduction of machizukuri
ordinances, which supported citizen’s rights to undertake machizukuri activities and a
dedicated machizukuri fund for citizens groups who wished to improve their local built
environments. In the late 1980s, the use of machizukuri ordinances spread in an
effort to protect rural areas (where land-use regulation was, and remains, relatively
limited) from sporadic and largely unmanaged development during the bubble
economy period.
4.9
Kobe played a further key role in the development of machizukuri when in 1995; the
Hanshin (Kobe) earthquake once again demonstrated the importance of community
mobilization. In the days and weeks following the earthquake, the limited and
inadequate response of government and private organisations contrasted with the
huge response and effort of citizens and community groups from all over Japan. This
highlighted the importance of NPOs and was influential in the enactment of the NonProfit Organisation Act in 1998. Until this time, voluntary groups had no legal
standing as organisations unless they were given special permission by relevant
ministries and thus, under Japanese law, could not do things such as set up a bank
account, which in turn made it extremely difficult if not impossible to rent offices,
employ staff or undertake many other activities. This also meant that the power and
success of such groups was strongly controlled by the Government. The NPO Act is
now seen as a key turning point in the civil society sector in Japan, which as a result
of these controls is still relatively small compared to the UK’s but is now growing
rapidly.
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4.10
2013
From 2001, the Koizumi3 Cabinet focused on private sector-led regeneration which
involved large scale redevelopment projects using deregulation and resulted in
increased conflict with and criticism from citizens who felt that this was a step back
towards a centralised, top down approach rather than moving further towards
community-based approaches. However, in 2006 Shinzo Abe was elected as Prime
Minister and although he has suffered several defeats since, he was re-elected in
2012. A decentralisation plan underway in Japan is slowly devolving greater powers,
including those regarding planning, to prefectures and local governments.
4.11
Koizumi-san went on to identify a number of current examples that highlight the
diversity of machizukuri activities, including;

the restoration, conversion and adaptive re-use of historic machiya shophouses in Kyoto;

a city centre revitalisation project in Matsue City, Shimane prefecture;

public participation in the design and making of a community walkway and
garden along the Kitazawagawa (Kitazawa River) in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo
using design workshops and games;

also in Setagaya, professional support for older people who live in large
houses to open their home to function as a community facility such as a
shop, café, children’s activities, crafts, lunch/gardening/other clubs for a trial
period. If it works, rules are set and necessary tweaks to approach made
before an opening event is held. The house is fitted with a plaque to show it
is part of the scheme;

a social enterprise in Tenryu City, Shizuoka Prefecture in which a historic
watermill was restored and converted into a hand-made soba (buckwheat
noodles) shop and restaurant;

restoration and management through citizen-led public works at Lake
Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture - large numbers of elementary schools
propagated and planted aquatic plants to support the shoreline ecosystem
and protect the banks from erosion as part of their environmental education
programmes and local forestry co-operatives supplied the wood for the
breakwaters as well as involving a range of other stakeholders.
4.12
These examples demonstrate that machizukuri is often an incremental and continual
activity with one action often building on the last and resulting in new aspects to a
project and that machizukuri can be used in different ways to address a wide range of
3
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is no relation to Hideki Koizumi of Tokyo University
24
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issues relating to regeneration, natural resource management, heritage preservation
and strengthening the local economy and culture. They show that common aims and
/ or a shared vision, community-based / citizen-led roots and a collaborative,
consensus-building approach are important factors in machizukuri and that many
actors can be involved in various roles, including citizens’ groups, professionals,
government at various levels and private companies.
Nagoya
4.13
From Tokyo, the Shinkansen was used to travel to the city of Nagoya in Aichi
prefecture, which has a population of 2,262,176 people.
4.14
The following morning, a meeting was held at Nagoya Urban Institute (NUI) in the
Kanayama area of the city. NUI is a quasi-autonomous organisation funded by
Nagoya City Government, which undertakes and facilitates research, facilitates
community participation and local and international exchange of planning
knowledge and information, holds lectures and seminars and supports
communities to undertake community planning activities (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Functions and activities of Nagoya Urban Institute
(source http://www.nui.or.jp/ENGLISH/index.htm)
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
4.15
2013
Key staff members at NUI each had a different role and area of expertise in
planning and machizukuri activities in Nagoya. The meeting was followed in the
afternoon by a walking tour of the Nagono and Hisaya Odori areas of Nagoya,
including historic Shikemichi. In the evening, the opportunity was taken to attend
the monthly meeting (at NUI) of a network of Nagoya-based consultants that are
involved in working with communities to assist them in preparing District Plans
and undertaking other machizukuri activities. Yayoi Niwa provided interpretation
services throughout the day.
4.16
During the meeting at NUI, the staff explained a lot about current planning issues
in Nagoya including flood risk, natural disasters, declining population and traffic
problems in the city centre as well as detailing proposals for the regeneration of
the city’s canals; plans to focus development and regeneration around the railway
stations as multifunctional service, facility and transport hubs and; attempts to
move residential areas away from flood risk areas whilst also trying to conserve
heritage. One key issue for Nagoya over the coming years is the planned
introduction of superfast Maglev trains, which will reduce the journey from Tokyo
to Nagoya, which is currently around 2 hours, to just 40 minutes. There is
concern that a number of major companies which currently have branches in
Nagoya will no longer need these branches and significant investment and jobs
will be lost. As a result, Nagoya is hoping that cutting edge regeneration and
redevelopment projects will enable it to remain and attractive, competitive city.
4.17
The canal regeneration proposals are being prepared in collaboration between
the city government, local businesses and residents, schools and other
organisations through a series of workshops and meetings. A new city
masterplan is also being developed but it has not yet been decided what methods
will be used to involve citizens in its preparation.
Figure 3: 3D model of Nagoya,
Nagoya Urban Institute
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4.18
2013
The walking tour in particular highlighted some key examples of machizukuri in
Nagoya. The Endoji Shopping Street is a covered shopping arcade, which had
become run down, affected by larger, more modern shopping centres elsewhere
in the city. Several of the historic shops had become empty or were demolished
and the land they once occupied given over to narrow strips of more financially
rewarding parking lots. Although several shops remain empty, the community
have worked together to regenerate the area, based in a purpose built
‘community salon’ (see Figure 3), which serves as a café as well as a meeting
place. The city government offers grants for projects offering suitable re-uses,
subject to approval and much is made of the arcade as a location for matsuri
(festivals) such as ‘star day’. Now, there are several new shops and restaurants,
and the area is beginning to see a revival.
Figure 4: Community Salon, Endoji Shopping Street, Nagoya
4.19
Shikemichi is part of the old Nagoya castle town in which merchants lived, trading
products such as rice, miso (soy bean-based paste), sake (alcoholic fermented
rice drink), firewood and charcoal along the canal (Horikawa River). It was a
thriving commercial area between 1610 and 1700, when a huge fire broke out,
destroying much of the area, hence in 1986, the area was designated as a
Historic Townscape Conservation District to help conserve what remained.
4.20
The government and other organisations such as NUI, have worked with the
community and land owners to conserve and restore many of the buildings,
ensuring their continued use or bringing them back into use, as well as creating
an attractive area for locals and visitors with interpretive panels and a heritage
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trail. Some of the old warehouses are still used as storage facilities by
businesses, others are now high-end restaurants. Many buildings are private
residences others are now shops and cafés (see Figure 4). It was notable
however that whilst certain areas of the Conservation District were very attractive
and had been restored and conserved to a high standard, these areas were
interspersed with demolished plots given over to pay-to-park lots with quite garish
signage. It was not clear how recently any of the demolition had taken place or
the reason for it but some of the signage looked new and very out-of-keeping with
the area.
Figure 5: Restored historic house in use as a café, Shikemichi
4.21
A further issue being addressed through machizukuri in the Nagono area is that
of a declining and ageing population and low birth rate. As a result of this issue,
Nagono elementary school is under threat of closure. As schools in Japan tend to
double as disaster respite centres, this is of great concern to local people, who
are meeting regularly to discuss possible options for the retention and / or re-use
of the school.
4.22
Consultants often assist communities in machizukuri activities in Japan and are
generally paid by the government relevant to the community they are working
with, although they may also work on voluntary basis. During the evening
meeting, the network of consultants explained that more and more citizens are
becoming involved in city planning and that the network acts as a facilitator and a
neutral link and coordinator between citizens and the city government.
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2013
They discussed the issues involved such as getting local people on board, getting
agreement amongst groups of citizens, ensuring that locals are empowered to
continue with a project without the consultants beyond a certain point and raising
awareness of the support the network can provide. They also highlighted the key
benefits of the network; there are clearly benefits to communities who wish to
undertake machizukuri activities in the fact that they have support, but there are
particular benefits of having a network that are not provided when a single
consultant is involved, such as having a pool of expertise to draw on so that the
particular needs of each community and project can be best met.
4.24
It was clear that the consultants put a lot of emphasis on the demand for change
or a particular project coming from the community and that a key task is to make
people aware that their aims can be achieved and the opportunities for doing this.
4.25
These examples further highlight the diversity of machizukuri but also the will of
local people to address local issues and the importance of proper support for
communities to do so. Additionally, it is important to note the high level of need
for landowner buy-in in Japan due to the greater level of private property rights. A
lack of support from certain landowners could be part of the reason for the vacant
lots in the Conservation District and Endoji arcade. The importance of festivals in
Japan for bringing communities together and supporting machizukuri efforts can
also be identified in the Endoji example.
4.26
It is also interesting that due to the declining population in Japan, the
preoccupation towards major house-building programmes, which currently
dominates planning discourse in the UK, is absent. In this context, it could be that
opportunities for communities and local governments to focus efforts and
resources on the sorts of issues being addressed through machizukuri in Nagoya
are more readily taken.
Owariasahi
4.27
Whilst based in Nagoya, a day was spent in Owariasahi, a smaller city close to
Nagoya. The city has a population of approximately 81,507 people, although it has
the feel of a much smaller settlement. Owariasahi is part of the International Alliance
for Healthy Cities and has recently won awards as part of its work for the programme.
This work forms the basis of a wide range of activities geared towards making the
healthier, primarily in terms of human health but also the health of the environment.
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In Owariasahi, these activities are very community focused and also support wider
spatial planning and sustainability goals such as integrated and sustainable
transport, cohesive communities and educational improvements.
4.28
The morning was spent at the City Government Offices with members of the
dedicated Healthy Cities team and the afternoon was spent on a driving tour (due to
the very wet weather) to view several key ‘Healthy Cities’ projects. Yayoi Niwa
provided interpretation services throughout the day.
4.29
The Healthy City programme, which was drawn up in 2005, is based on the
provisions of the Fourth Owariasahi City General Plan, prepared in 2004. However,
Owariasahi City Hall staff are strongly supportive of the programme and it will play a
central role in the next General City Plan, which is to be prepared in 2015.
4.30
The Healthy Cities programme in Owariasahi operates under three overarching
policy guidelines; making a city that prevents people from becoming bedridden;
making a city people want to go out into and; making a city where people would
always want to live. Under each of these policy guidelines are three strategies, each
with two or three specific actions ranging from promoting individual health
management to developing the public transport network to environmental
conservation, which culminate in a series of 5 ‘leading plans’. Details of the full
programme can be seen here.
4.31
There are key messages from Owariashai’s examples in relation to the relationships
within communities and engagement between communities and the local
government.
4.32
The Healthy Cities Programme has clearly strengthened the relationship between the
city government (and in particular the dedicated healthy cities team) and the
community as well as relationships within the community. Partly because there is
recognition amongst the community of the range of positive measures being
implemented but also a balance has been achieved between the city running aspects
of the programme and communities running activities themselves that support the
programme. In some cases, the city has begun a particular activity and then the
community have taken over the running of it. Many of the projects involve many
community members of all ages coming together, such as the ‘promotion of health
through farming and food’ aspect and the ‘eco-garden city’ aspect, which sees
groups of residents joining forces to work on tree-planting and conducting riverbank
clean-up operations. This has given residents the feeling of ownership of projects
30
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and has brought community members together in joint achievements whilst retaining
the benefit of city government staff being available for support, advice and assistance
if it is required.
4.33
The Healthy Cities Team ensure that communities are aware of and understand the
programme through the city’s monthly residents’ newsletter, which has a section
dedicated to Healthy City activities, questionnaires about each project during the
planning phase and a range of publicity relating to each individual project. As is
common and very popular across Japan, a dedicated character is used to promote
the programme and is used in all publicity. In the case of Owariasahi, it is Asapy.
Asapy even appears in the local rice paddies and can be seen from the air and viewpoints in the city through a rice field picture planted especially each year by local
residents (see Figure 5 – the rice had not reached maturity at the time of this
photograph being taken and the image will become clearer). This brings residents
together in celebrating, promoting and reinforcing the Healthy Cities work.
Figure 6: Rice paddy depicting Owariasahi Healthy City mascot, Asapy
4.34
Further examples of successful engagement include the walking programme; a
series of six walking routes across the city, each with a different theme for which a
walking route leaflet and a mobile ‘phone application are available with the aim of
increasing the accessibility of this aspect of the project to all sections of society and;
targeted engagement for particular age-groups undertaken through food education
programme for schools and dedicated activities such as health assessments and hotspring visits for the elderly.
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4.35
2013
Owariasahi’s key messages were therefore very much around methods of engaging
and motivating the community and building relationships with and between
community members, but it will also be very interesting to see how the Healthy Cities
work is incorporated into the next City General Plan in 2015. The Healthy Cities work
is naturally based around health, but this has been interpreted widely to integrate all
aspects of what makes a city healthy, rather than just relating to the medical health of
its population. As a result, the activities all have multiple benefits towards wider aims
of sustainability and liveability. As in Nagoya, it might be that in the context of
national population decline, which reduces pressure to focus on new built
development, these factors benefit from greater attention and resources that they
might in a context of population growth.
Fukuoka
4.36
From Nagoya, the study moved on to Fukuoka. Fukuoka is a city of 1,500,899 people
in Fukuoka Prefecture. Fukuoka aims to base its future development on its strategic
location at the ‘crossroads of Asia’ - it is closer to Seoul than it is to Tokyo and has
good links with the South Korean capital as well as with Taiwan and cities in China –
and has had the largest increase in population of all the designated cities in Japan
since the last census in 2010.
4.37
Through Nigel Stott, an English teacher who has lived and worked in Japan for many
years, the honour was bestowed on the study to spend a morning meeting
(supported by Mr Stott) at Fukuoka Prefectural Offices with Takenori Yamasaki, the
Vice Governor Fukuoka Prefecture and his planning and machizukuri staff.
4.38
A day whilst based in Fukuoka was spent visiting the Munakata area to the north east
of Fukuoka and provided some further insight into how historic community
management systems still influence the way communities organise themselves
today. Additionally, Munakata has a recently built michi-no-eki (road station), which is
a heavily community-based venture. This visit was intended as a ‘free’ day and not
officially part of the study and as such, is covered only briefly in Appendix 6.
4.39
Free time in Fukuoka was also spent exploring the city, which although not directly
related to machizukuri, offered some interesting examples and ideas for urban
greening as well as first had experience of some of the city’s recent major
developments such as the ACROS building and Canal City. This was not officially
part of the study and thus is covered alongside the information about michi-no-eki in
Appendix 6.
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4.40
2013
The discussion with Vice Governor Yamasaki and his staff was useful primarily in
providing a background understanding of; Fukuoka itself and planning strategies for
the city; the local administrative structure and responsibilities; local level community
organisational mechanisms such as han and Neighbourhood Associations and the
importance of historic and cultural factors such as matsuri in Japanese society.
However, they also provided a significant amount of printed information which
detailed a range of diverse machizukuri activities and highlighted the importance of
partnerships, including between the public administration and residents, NGOs/NPOs
and private companies, in the wider development and urban regeneration strategy for
the city.
Figure 7: Fukuoka Prefectural Government Building
4.41
Examples of specific machizukuri activities from across Fukuoka Prefecture were
identified in a ‘Revitalisation of the Local Community Research Report’, which was
part of the wider written material provided by the Vice Governor and his staff. These
examples tend to be undertaken at gakku (school district) level (see paragraph 2.6)
and are supported by Local Governments through the provision of subsidies for
activities and training sessions for community leaders and the creation of a local
government department dedicated to aiding collaboration between the community
and the public sector, including staff appointed to be in charge of relations with each
local community. The prefectural government also provides support through best
practice examples, such as set out in the ‘Revitalisation of the Local Community
Research Report’ and evidence and information. The examples highlighted include;

Efforts towards multi-generational interaction in Tagawa city, including
community-based after school care by older residents for primary age
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2013
children, river cleaning and walking events and kite-flying contests for all age
groups;

A Neighbourhood Association in Kagoshima bringing the community,
including local breweries, together to utilise derelict land to grow sweet
potatoes to make shochu (a traditional potato-based alcoholic drink), the
profits of which are used to support youth and elderly welfare and wider
community revitalisation projects;

Following a request from the youth development group in Tachibana town,
broadband was introduced to the area and has benefited the whole
community. The resulting interaction and positive outcome to their request
has increased the involvement of youth groups in community activities;

Establishment of a local currency – the Orion – in Kita-Kyushu city which
helped to reinvigorate the local economy and individual participating shopping
arcades as well as creating a sense of unity within the community;

NPOs managed by community councils in Fukuoka itself utilised vacant
shops to create multi-functional community buildings offering cafés, places of
rest for elderly residents out shopping, local information dissemination, miniconcerts and residents’ exchange forum all under one roof, helping to
revitalise run-down shopping arcades at the same time.
4.42
In addition to these examples, the report identified that as society changes, the
needs of communities have become more complex and more difficult for the
government (at all levels) to address adequately and that modern lifestyles are
beginning to weaken the historically strong unity of Japanese communities, which is
making it more difficult for issues that were once resolved within and by the
community to continue to be resolved in this way. At the same time, Japan is going
through a period of decentralisation and increasing local autonomy, so it is important
that communities do play a significant role in the development and management of
their local areas.
4.43
The ‘Revitalisation of the Local Community Research Report’ made it clear that
machizukuri activities are therefore very important in not only ensuring that
community bonds, unity and pride are regained, retained and strengthened but also
in enabling and facilitating communities and individuals to perform this role and take
on ownership of and responsibility for action to address local issues in collaboration
with their local government. Also stressed was the need for clear division of
responsibilities between the local government and communities, the need for local
strategies and activities to be highly visible to all residents in order to stimulate
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motivation and engagement and the need to identify and capitalise upon existing
human resources, such as particular skills (e.g. traditional skills such as shochumaking or engineering or administrative skills) within communities. The examples
from Fukuoka prefecture also reinforce the diverse nature and multi-benefit
characteristics of machizukuri and their importance in understanding how and why
machizukuri activities work.
Kashima
4.44
A further day whilst based in Fukuoka was spent in the Hizenhama area of Kashima,
in neighbouring Saga Prefecture, with Nobuo Mishima, Professor in the Department
of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Saga University, who relayed his experiences
of working with the Hizenhama community and guided a walking tour of Hizenhama’s
conservation areas along with community NPO leader Nakamura-san. Kashima is a
city of approximately 31,000 people, bound by the sea to the east and forested
mountains to the west, giving much of it a rural feel. It is around 1 hour by train from
Fukuoka. The Hama-gawa (Hama River) flows through the Hizenhama part of the
city. The visit was ‘by chance’ following the meeting in Tokyo with Hideki Koizumi,
who generously initiated arrangements for the visit with Nobuo Mishima, a former
colleague of his.
4.45
The case in Kashima is a primarily heritage conservation-based project based in the
Hizenhama area, which has grown and evolved to generate multiple benefits for the
wider locality. The machizukuri efforts began in 1985 when a classical concert held
locally spurred local residents to become interested in revitalising the area. By 1988,
residents had formed a group to progress revitalisation efforts and worked to put a
case together to gain the support of Bunkacho (the Japanese equivalent of English
Heritage). As a result, Bunkacho began a survey of the city’s traditional buildings in
1996 which eventually led to the development of a masterplan for the regeneration of
the area through revitalisation and conservation and the grant of subsidies by the
government. The community group had evolved during this time, becoming
concerned also with other local issues such as biodiversity and flood risk and
became an official Non-profit organisation – Hizenhama Shuku Mizu to Machinami no
kai (Hizenhama Shuku Water and Streets Board) - in 2007.
4.46
In 2007 in conjunction with the formation of the NPO, an exercise was undertaken to
restore a historic thatched former samurai property (see Figures 8 and 9) that was in
a very poor state of repair. The exercise involved academic and technical advisors,
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people with traditional building skills and many members of the local community. A
series of participation events were held as part of the physical restoration of the
building, in-particular, school children were involved in a very hands-on and
explanatory way, highlighting the educational benefits that can be gained from
machizukuri activities.
Figure 8: Restored former samurai property, Kashima
Figure 9: Nakamura-san and Mishima-san in the restored former samurai
property, Kashima
4.47
Bunkacho had in fact advised the community against pursuing their efforts any
further, partly because they were concerned that the preservation of particular
buildings might hinder a road-widening project but also because the masterplan
vision was considered highly ambitious. The community however had the support of
their mayor and the city government, who created a new department dedicated to
historic preservation and together, they were able to convince Bunkacho that the
vision was deliverable and should be pursued. The result was that in 2007, Bunkacho
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announced the designation of two areas of Hizenhama as ‘Important Area of
Traditional Buildings’. A recent change in the head of Bunkacho meant that two areas
could be designated, previously, it was rare for two designations to take place
simultaneously. One of the designated areas is predominantly related to the
preservation of a cluster of traditional thatched properties south of the river and the
other, north of the river, contains an area of historic sake (Japanese alcoholic drink
made from fermented rice) breweries and a section of street (including associated
buildings) which forms part of a significant Edo period4 route from Nagasaki to
Kokura / Kita-Kyushu (see Figure 10). During the Edo period, this area of what is
today Kashima City formed a ‘road station’ area where travellers along the route
could access key services such as accommodation, refreshment and a customs
house / post office.
Figure 10: Restored sake brewery, left, and the old Edo period Nagasaki to
Kokura road, Kashima
4.48
Although the efforts of the community to revitalise the Hizenhama area are built
heritage-focused, the discussions and engagement involved have led to a range of
other activities that support the heritage and revitalisation aims but have wider
community benefits including increasing the number of tourist and thus the tourism
revenue and stemming the migration of the young from the area to the larger cities.
For example, the area is traditionally known for its sake and pickle production and so
an annual sakura (cherry blossom) and sake festival held in March was begun in
2002. Buildings are not only restored, but they are then brought back into adaptive
reuse to create homes for young families, cafes, shops, art display space for local
schools and competitions, performance space and general community uses. The
building in the photograph on the front cover of this report is a pickle factory which,
through collaboration between a youth group and the owner, is now used for
community events and on the day of the study visit, an event was taking place that
4
Edo period – Key historic period from 1603-1868 in which the Tokugawa family ruled and in which Edo, now
known as Tokyo, grew to world city status, dwarfing London and Paris.
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2013
combined performances by an up-and-coming Tokyo musician / singer with the sale
of local produce including sake and pickles and other local crafts. These events are
regularly put on with the aims of helping to retain young people in the area by
providing them with entertainment activities whilst also supporting local producers
and the continuation of local traditional crafts and skills, such as sake and picklemaking. The events are well attended by all age groups, including young families and
together with the other benefits outlined above; these efforts have been successful in
increasing the number of young people staying in the area as well as increasing
tourism.
Figure 11: Café, shop and art space, left, and community event in historic
thatched buildings
Figure 12: Young family provided with a home through
restoration of a historic thatched property
4.49
The system that has formed the basis of the success of Kashima’s machizukuri
activities involves the NPO, professionals and academics (including Mishima-san), a
historic townscape committee (which includes residents’ representatives and
politicians) run by the City’s historic preservation department, which informs widercity government decision-making, residents and traditional building owners. The way
these groups interact and work together is set out in Figure 13.
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2013
Architects
Mayor
Historic
Townscape
committee
Machizukuri
Kyogikai
(negotiation
meeting)
City
Government
Owners of
traditional
properties
Residents
NPO
Figure 13: Governance and decision-making structure for the historic
preservation of Hizenhama Source: Taken from booklet produced setting out the guidelines for and
history of the NPOs work
4.50
Mishima-san and Nakamura-san reported some issues such as not being able to
include all of the properties and areas in the designations that they would have liked
to due to lack of cooperation from some property owners or objection from local
residents as well as land tax and legality difficulties in relation to transferring
ownership of certain properties to the NPO. However, on the whole, the work of the
NPO and the wider community has been very successful and continues to thrive. The
example of Kashima highlights the importance of wider support, including from the
local government, for communities if their machizukuri efforts are to be fruitful and
effective as well as the need for communities to retain ownership over their projects
and for the whole community to have a role in and feel the benefits of a project.
Indeed, Kashima is an excellent example of how multiple benefits can be gained
even where machizukuri activities originated from a largely single focus – what began
as an essentially built heritage-based project has gone on the have much wider
benefits including for education, tourism and for helping to maintain a balanced
population by providing activities and homes to enable younger people to stay in or
be attracted to Kashima as well as more general revitalisation of the living
environment.
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Tagawa
4.51
The final day whilst based in Fukuoka was spent visiting the Prefectural University
(also through Mr Stott) at Tagawa, around 2 hours east of the city by bus to meet
with Professors at the University and community leader Kouta Ueki. Tagawa is an exmining city with a declining population of currently around 51,128 people. Ueki-san
has been influential in efforts to regenerate and revitalise the area through
community-based action and the drawing-up of a regeneration plan. Ueki-san was
also instrumental in successfully transferring the UK’s Groundwork5 approach to
Japan and has implemented some Groundwork principles in devising regeneration
projects in Tagawa.
4.52
The discussion was unfortunately quite limited at least partly due to language
difficulties. As such the key points gathered of direct relevance to the study were also
quite limited and are as follows;

Interest in city planning amongst residents is increasing;

Neighbourhood Associations are important in coming together to
respond to particular local and urban planning issues but each has its
own priorities which can make city-wide collaboration difficult;

Neighbourhood Associations do get money from higher tiers of
government to fund local projects;

The rate of household involvement in Neighbourhood Associations is
in decline (although there was disagreement on this point between
University staff – all agreed that participation varied but not all agreed
that it was in decline) and;

Groundwork principles have been applied to undertake renewal and
improvement projects in local parks in Tagawa.
4.53
Additionally, a 30-year city reconstruction and renewal plan was published earlier this
year (March 2013) by an Urban Renewal Council. It was drawn up by a professional
planning consultant in conjunction with local people and businesses, but primarily
retailers. The local government chose the issues to be addressed in the plan and
then the plan was submitted to the national government who, when approved,
provided the local government with the money to support the delivery of the projects.
The plan seeks to; improve the station and shopping areas for visitors through
5
Groundwork began in the UK in the 1980s and seeks to “work towards…a society of sustainable communities
which are vibrant, healthy and safe, which respect the local and global environment and where individuals and
enterprise prosper” for more information see www.groundwork.org.uk and also Parker & Murayama (2005).
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2013
signage, landscaping and new restaurants; improve accessibility to and
attractiveness of the city’s coal-mining heritage commemorative park; improve public
transport across the city; instigate heritage conservation projects, particularly around
the city’s main shrine and improve public safety.
4.54
The issue was raised that often when consultants lead on preparing plans with local
communities, they often do so with their own aims in mind and thus the benefits in
this case of involving a consultant well-known for listening to locals was stressed as
being particularly important.
Inuyama
4.55
From Fukuoka, the study headed back east to the city of Inuyama in Aichi Prefecture.
Inuyama is very close to Nagoya but the availability of contacts in Fukuoka had
dictated that Inuyama and Nagoya could not be visited consecutively. Inuyama has a
population of around 75,137 people, but as in Owariasahi, Inuyama’s size in
population belies the feel of the city.
4.56
As well as some informal exploring of the city, a day and a half was spent with city
Councillor Takahiro Kuze. Firstly, a meeting was held at the Mizunowo Ryokan to
discuss the local machizukuri context and projects and this was followed by a walking
tour around the city’s historic castle town (jokamachi) and neighbouring areas to see
the key projects and their outcomes first hand as well including visiting the city’s
castle and museum. Inuyama Castle is one of only three castles in Japan to be
designated as a National Treasure and is of particular relevance to the city and its
machizukuri projects. Susie Kondo provided interpretation services on both days.
4.57
Inuyama has quite a unique planning history in that the local government rejected
requests from the National Government in the bubble economy period to redevelop
the castle town area and thus, today has one of Japan’s few remaining largely intact
castle towns. It is this area that is the focus of machizukuri activity in Inuyama. The
city’s previous mayor was also instrumental in supporting activities to retain the castle
town area and develop Inuyama in an original way rather than following other areas
to become ‘modern’. More recently, Inuyama has also rejected the approach of many
other cities in Japan, who have redeveloped the areas around the stations. Residents
have grown to welcome this alternative approach and there have been a range of
collaborative projects between the local government and residents to continue
building on this to ensure that the castle town and wider city evolves as a vibrant
place to live whilst retaining and conserving its heritage.
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4.58
2013
These efforts have included undergrounding of electricity cables, transferring historic
properties to city ownership to enable their re-use as community facilities and
pioneering a rule to restrict building heights, which has now been adopted elsewhere
in Japan. In Inuyama, the maximum height allowed is 13 metres and came about
following a negative community reaction to the construction of a high rise manshon
apartment block.
4.59
As a result of the various community activities to protect the historic area, the city
government has set up a dedicated Town Management Organisation to support
residents in undertaking these activities. The organisation buys or loans old buildings
and makes arrangements with local businesses or organisations that could make use
out of them. This has increased the number of shops and businesses on the main
street leading to the castle (see Figure 14), which in turn has increased tourism and
tourism revenue in the area as well as generally revitalising this part of the city. There
are now a range of cafes, restaurants and shops; the local radio station also has its
studios there with a large window directly from the studio onto the street (far right of
the right hand photo in Figure 14) whereas prior to this project, the only attraction
was the castle itself. One of the units is run as an ‘NPO shop’ selling local produce
and providing other residents’ information and support. Interpretive panels have also
been installed throughout the castle town area, explaining the area’s history (see
Figure 15).
Figure 14: New shops and businesses in historic castle town buildings
4.60
Partly as a result of the surge in tourism and partly to support tourism further,
residents have teamed up with a main railway company operating locally, Meitetsu, to
run a local tourism organisation. Locals run tourist information facilities supported
financially by Meitetsu. Meitetsu benefit as they transport tourists to the area as well
as owning some key local tourist attractions but the local area also benefits more
widely from the additional funding and wider economic benefits of increased tourism.
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Figure 15: Interpretation board in Inuyama’s castle town area
4.61
Inuyama also demonstrated the importance of matsuri (festivals) in bringing
communities together and providing the basis for successful machizukuri. As is the
case across Japan, Inuyama has its own regular matsuri and each cho has its own
festival float. Festival floats in Japan are not created every year as in England but are
kept with regular maintenance for many, many years and each has great cultural
significance. The floats are very large and thus, each community must have a flat
garage. On the main street leading to the castle in Inuyama, a new float garage has
recently been built, funded by the city government. The building also serves as a
community meeting venue which can be used for meetings of the festival committees
or to discuss other issues (see Figure 16).
Figure 16: Recently built festival float garage / community centre plus floats
4.62
There is a campaign by residents, and supported by the local government to get the
castle town area designated as the Japanese equivalent of Conservation Areas in
England, although there have been difficulties getting national support from the
English Heritage equivalent, Bunkacho, due to the small size of the area and
because some residents are not supportive of the idea.
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4.63
2013
There have been similar disputes in the past as most of the people who get involved
with machizukuri activities are senior citizens, meaning that community meetings to
discuss machizukuri projects have been dominated by this age group. Often, these
residents were reluctant to take on new ideas, which in turn, made younger people
even more reluctant to join in. However, as the castle town area became revitalised,
many of the new business owners were younger incomers. At first there were come
conflicts between the two groups but the positive outcomes have helped to resolve
these issues. Additionally, some machizukuri projects are initiated by younger
people. A farming and agriculture cooperative has been set up by a group of younger
residents who now make a living from the project, growing and selling local produce
as well as enabling the retention of agricultural skills to help provide alternatives to
moving away from Inuyama to find work in larger cities.
4.64
Although residents get involved in their community at the very local level, there are
relatively limited involvement opportunities when it comes to preparing the city–wide
plan. There is a legal requirement for people to be consulted on city masterplans but
it seems this usually involves simply asking people to comment. Cllr. Kuze reported
that there are some people who are keen to be involved but also noted that often
residents’ groups will request that something is included with the plan which is then
acted upon. For example, residents have requested that the community gym
(equivalent to a UK leisure centre) and social welfare building (a social services
centre), which are both relatively tall western-style 1960s buildings, are moved from
castle street in order to reinstate or enhance (depending on where one is standing)
the long view right along the street to the castle (see Figure 17).
Figure 17: View of Inuyama Castle along castle street, currently compromised by social
welfare building, left and outside Inuyama Castle itself
44
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4.65
2013
Finally, the importance of a supportive mayor as part of the wider support network for
communities and the importance of education were also highlighted in Inuyama. The
city’s former mayor was particularly keen on citizen involvement and cultural heritage
but the new mayor, although he is not removing any of the existing provisions that
support machizukuri, is more interested in following the more standard prefectural
and national plans. Additionally, in an approach that is unique to Inuyama, twenty
years ago the city introduced local history to their school curriculum (over which the
city has control). The city has found that teaching children local history from a young
age has increased people’s affinity with their town and this has continued into
adulthood. Over the years, this has shown to play a part in increasing the number of
people who choose to move back to the city to raise their own families having left to
go to University as well as increasing people’s desire to get involved with community
activities.
4.66
The examples from Inuyama support the messages from examples in other locations
that a good relationship between local governments and communities is important in
the success of machizukuri, as are cultural factors such as festivals, which play a role
in providing firm groundings for communities working together to address local
issues. Furthermore the examples show that although Japanese communities face
some of the same issues as are often found in England around the dominance of
particular age groups in community activities / community engagement and
disagreements within communities, these can be overcome. Experiences from
Inuyama also suggest that there may be ways in which machizukuri activities could
form the basis of mechanisms to enable more direct community participation in city
level as well as the very local level plans (such as District plans as in Nagoya and
Kyoto) and place-making that residents are already involved in through machizukuri
activities.
Kyoto
4.67
Returning west slightly, the study then visited Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture. Kyoto is a
city of between 1,400,000 and 1,500,000 people and is perhaps one of the most
famous of Japanese cities as a result of is popularity for tourists who come to visit its
high density of temples, shrines and other historic sites.
4.68
A morning was spent here meeting with Shizuka Hashimoto, Associate Professor in
the School of Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, who explained
examples of machizukuri from his experiences of working with communities in rural
Japan.
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4.69
2013
Hashimoto-san has particular experience in machizukuri in rural areas and explained
that the various national planning Acts, which are set out in more detail in section 2,
are primarily focused on the promotion of development in urban areas and provide
little planning regulation in rural areas. This meant that in the bubble economy period
of the 1990s and before, there was significant unregulated and sporadic development
in the countryside of Japan. It is important to clarify that what constitutes ‘rural’ in
Japan is quite different from what constitutes ‘rural’ in England, as also explained in
section 2.
4.70
Local governments and residents in many rural areas felt that some local guidance
was needed to help fill this vacuum and this initiated the preparation of machizukuri
ordinances, which included guidelines such as the need for the neighbours’ approval
before new developments could go ahead and requests for developer contributions
to local infrastructure. These documents were produced in collaboration between
local government officers and residents but were not subject to any formal process of
approval by relevant councils. As such, they carried little weight.
4.71
In 2000, the Decentralisation Act strengthened local governments’ powers and
included provision for machizukuri ordinances to become policy. This increase in the
weight given to locally produced ordinances resulted in an increase in the number of
such ordinances being prepared and now many rural areas have them in place. They
are particularly useful and popular in peri-urban areas, which are outside of the areas
subject to the City Planning Act (and thus subject to more planning regulation) but
close enough to suffer from development pressure. The ordinances help to ensure
that new development is appropriate to the local context in the absence of higher tier
plans and are essentially the rural equivalent of District Plans (such as those
prepared in examples described in Nagoya and Kyoto).
4.72
Hashimoto-san went on to give an example to describe the process involved in the
preparation of machizukuri ordinances. The local government in Hotaka invited
residents to an early discussion and explanatory session to set out their suggestions
for what issues the ordinance should cover and also issued a questionnaire survey to
get residents’ views. A further session was then held to feed back the results of the
survey to residents and set out what changes would be made to the ordinance as a
result before it was submitted to a meeting of the local government councillors for
approval. Neighbourhood Association members (the equivalent of parish Councillors
in England) attended the meetings along with interested residents. Hashimoto-san
pointed out that those living in manshon (apartment blocks) can be excluded and not
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2013
considered part of the community, especially in the case of single people or students,
and are therefore not involved in community meetings.
4.73
Ordinances do not tend to include the identification of areas for new infrastructure or
facilities as local governments are wary of promising things that they cannot provide.
However, these types of provisions can be included with a caveat if concrete needs
for such development are established. Ordinances therefore tend to include the
specification of design requirements or other restrictions such as building heights and
occupancy clauses and generally create little conflict between residents.
4.74
Additional machizukuri activities in rural areas include general community
revitalisation efforts such as projects that involve inviting urban dwellers to take part
in activities in rural areas, such as farming activities and local events, in order to help
to create a bond between urban and rural dwellers, revitalise rural communities and
to increase the value placed on rural activities and the importance of agriculture and
rural areas generally by both rural and urban residents.
4.75
A further morning in Kyoto was spent with Co-ordinator Anri Makino and
Administrator Maiko Abe at Kyoto Machizukuri Centre (Kyoto Centre for Community
Collaboration) (see Figure 18). Many cities in Japan have a dedicated machizukuri
centre. The Kyoto centre was set up in 1997 in a former school building and is
funded primarily by Kyoto City Government but also through inviting supporters to
join for which there is a membership fee. It provides quasi-autonomous support,
advice and a venue for community groups working on machizukuri projects including;
4.76

Raising public awareness and providing information;

Consultations;

Self-learning and training opportunities;

Supporting community activities;

Promotion of exchanges activities;

Research and development and;

Management and operation of the centre.
Additionally, the Centre administers a separate fund dedicated to the preservation,
restoration and adaptive re-use of machiya (traditional shop-houses) in Kyoto.
Detailed information about the centre’s activities and organisational structure can be
found here.
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Figure 18: Kyoto Centre for Community Collaboration
4.77
The first part of the morning was spent at the Centre; Makino-san had prepared a
presentation specifically to answer the study questions sent through to the centre in
advance. Following the presentation, a visit was made to Shutoku Gakku (school
district), a community that is preparing a District Plan, to speak with Hiroshi ‘Peter’
Konishi, the chairman of Shutoku Gakku machizukuri committee.
4.78
Makino-san’s presentation explained that in relation to the activities the centre helps
to facilitate, a wide range of people are involved. This primarily includes local
residents, businesses, the city government and the lower level administrative
Districts but also involves NPOs, volunteers and a variety of experts, such as
planning consultants and architects. Each has a key role and relationships between
these groups continue to develop and improve. Makino-san reported that Kyoto
residents are very positive and enthusiastic about the process and the involvement of
this network of participants in machizukuri. One of the Centre’s key roles is to nurture
relationships between the parties. To do this, it is imperative to build trust and
facilitate balanced exchanges. Additionally, the Centre has an important role in
providing subsidies for and sourcing and channelling funding towards local
machizukuri activities as well as coordinating the dispatch of experts to where they
are most needed in the community, depending on the expertise that is required.
4.79
The presentation identified that Kyoto has commonality with other cases explored in
that important aspects of this are seeking out and capitalising on existing human
resources within the community, from unique features of the community to skills
possessed by residents and promoting the activities as widely as possible to ensure
that residents have every chance to understand what is going on, get involved and
feel a part of the action. The Centre produces a quarterly newsletter and twicemonthly email bulletin, manages a website, delivers symposiums, lectures and
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workshops and produces booklets as well as interacting face-to-face in order to
foster good relationships and engage with communities and individual residents.
4.80
In terms of those getting involved in machizukuri, the Centre has found that the
majority of people that get involved in machizukuri activities are people who live in
mixed business / residential style accommodation i.e. the equivalent of a live-work
unit in England or where people who live above the shop they run; the retired and
housewives. The heavy involvement of the former is thought to be because those
living and working in the area have a greater stake than those who only either live
OR work in an area, whilst similarly to in England, the greater involvement of the
retired is put down to this age group having more free time. This was also given as
the reason for greater involvement of housewives. Similarly to Hashimoto-san’s
comments, Makino-san indicated that there is some concern over the lack of
involvement of younger people, which is attributed to them being too busy at work
and the fact that they tend to live in manshon (apartment blocks) and therefore may
have fewer interactions with other community members, although it is not necessarily
seen as a negative that older people have a greater involvement. Senior residents
are seen as having greater experience and knowledge of their community for
example. It was interesting to note that the size of Neighbourhood Associations and
thus, their representation in machizukuri activities has declined over time, although
the total number of people involved in machizukuri has remained the same.
4.81
It was identified that a wide range of issues are addressed through machizukuri
activities in Kyoto, from addressing challenges such as social welfare and disaster
prevention to facilitating interaction between the generations, for example, through
intergenerational sporting events. The Self-government Association of Shutoku
Gakku was given as an example and also helped to further explain the detail of how
community organisational structures operate at the lower administrative tiers such as
the cho and the District, as described at paragraphs 2.5 and 2.6.
4.82
The Association consists of many sub-committees, each with their own topic of
responsibility including machizukuri, townscape, shrines and religion, women’s
group, elderly, young, traffic, social welfare, sports, fire prevention and disaster
prevention. Each sub-committee runs its own annual local event relating to their
topic. The school with which the gakku (school district) is associated) also sits on the
Association and the heads of the sub-committees take it in turns to be the overall
head of the Association. Each household pays ¥6000 per year (about £40) to the
Association.
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4.83
2013
As well as these regular activities of the Association, it is also working with Kyoto City
to prepare a District plan for the Shutoku Gakku area. Communities participate in the
preparation of the City Masterplan generally only through web-based public comment
consultation, but District Plans, which can be proposed by residents or the local
government, are prepared with the participation and agreement of as many local
residents as possible. The Shutoku Gakku District Plan primarily provides additional
guidance in relation to issues such as building height and design, although a Kyoto
Local Landscape Act in 2007 now also places restrictions on aspects such as this.
An optional District Development Plan can also be prepared in addition to the District
Plan, but Shutoku Gakku has not yet decided to take this route.
4.84
The Association’s townscape, machizukuri and architecture committees also play a
role in ensuring that new development is appropriate for the area by working with
developers to amend and agree proposals. They are supported by Kyoto Centre for
Community Collaboration, Kyoto Society for Architects and Building Engineers and
Kyoto University to assess proposals at the draft, planning and design stages so that
they can influence them before the final proposals to be submitted to the City’s
planning department are drawn up. An interesting role of the University is to provide
assistance to residents in understanding the proposals through 3D-modelling and
animated simulations. Students on relevant courses, such as computer-aided design
courses, provide this assistance thus benefiting from some practical experience in
their chosen field whilst the community get the benefit of seeing what proposals will
look like and how they might need to be changed in order to be in-keeping with the
District, something which would perhaps otherwise have been unavailable to them.
4.85
The Centre confirmed that these types of approaches have indeed given people
more influence over what happens in their areas over the last 20 years, although they
identified that there will always be possibilities for further improvement; for example,
developing residents’ skills to enable them to participate more fully, building a
broader network with those beyond the immediate community and finding ways for
younger people to get involved.
4.86
The meeting with ‘Peter’ Konishi-san (see Figure 19) was very useful to put the
information provided by Makino-san and Abe-san at the Centre into context. In
explaining the history of the area, Konishi-san identified how important the ties
between the community and the school have been historically in the school District
and how this continues today. The school in Shutoku Gakku was the first established
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school in Japan in 1869. Shutoku Elementary School District Autonomy Association
was established at that time and has set the precedent for the Association today.
Figure 19: With Makino-san, Konishi-san and
Abe-san at Shutoku Gakku Community Centre
4.87
Konishi-san described how many residents give up their time to participate in the
various committees and run the associated festivals, including the main Summer
Festival which is a popular event which attracts people from beyond the District
boundaries. He explained that people are happy to volunteer in this way as they feel it
is important to work for their community and collective living environment to build a
place in which existing residents want to stay and new residents are attracted to.
However, he also confirmed that a significant percentage, close to 70%, of those on
the Association’s committees is over 60 years old. Interestingly, a similar percentage
is made up of women.
4.88
Regarding relationships within communities and between communities and other
parties involved in machizukuri, Konishi-san commented that in his experience, highrise living isolates people, even when the apartment block is within a strong
community whereas those living along a street have the benefit of greater interaction
with their immediate neighbours, resulting also in a safer community. This is another
reason given as to why those living in manshon do not participate as much as others
in machizukuri despite the fact that that majority pay the Association fee. However,
the Association does not specifically discourage or object to manshon in principle as
they tend to attract younger families, which aids the development of a balanced
community. They do hope though that efforts to engage with residents of apartments,
such as promoting community disaster prevention measures and producing a
pamphlet identifying the importance of getting involved, will improve participation
levels. Konishi-san also remarked on the benefits of the good relationship between
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the Association and the Centre for Community Collaboration, which were also clear
to see in the interaction between Centre staff and Konishi-san himself.
4.89
The examples and information gathered in Kyoto are particularly useful in
demonstrating the use of machizukuri activities in relation to the preparation of
machizukuri ordinances and District Plans. Examples explained by Hashimoto-san
provide insight into these activities and their particular benefits in rural areas, whilst
those set out by Kyoto Centre for Community Collaboration and Shutoku Gakku
community reveal how things can work at the very local District level in an urban
setting. These examples may be particularly relevant to communities working on or
considering working on Neighbourhood Plans in England. Additionally, they further
support evidence found elsewhere of the variety of issues that are addressed through
machizukuri, the relationships that exist and can be built through machizukuri and the
increased power being provided to communities through machizukuri as well as the
importance of networks of support for communities undertaking machizukuri.
Kamakura and Chigasaki
4.90
The final part of the study trip was based in Chigasaki and Kamakura in Kanagawa
prefecture. Both Chigasaki and Kamakura are cities, with populations of
approximately 236,177 and 174,412 respectively, although as with many smaller
Japanese cities, the feel of both is more akin to that of a relaxed town in the case of
Chigasaki and a relatively small historic town in the case of Kamakura, which is a
former capital of Japan.
4.91
Through the CEO of Japan Tourism, Masamichi Takenaka, a morning was spent with
staff at Kamakura City Hall who explained about local planning issues and
machizukuri projects there and the afternoon was spent at the Shonan Campus of
Bunkyo University at Chigasaki. At the University, a discussion was held with
Professors Shuji Yamada, Noriko Takai-Tokunaga and Yoshifumi Fujii who specialise
in the fields of planning, machizukuri and international tourism before viewing a
series of students presentations, specially prepared for the visit, on the topic of how
machizukuri can be used to address a range of specific tourism and planning or
environmental problems. Ayako Fujii provided interpretation services. A further day
was spent exploring Kamakura independently via a walking and bus tour.
4.92
The meeting at Kamakura City Hall began with a visit to the roof of the building to get
a view across the whole city, accompanied by staff who explained a bit about the
city’s history as well pointing as the general land use zones and how the city was
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arranged in terms of land use areas. This was very helpful to get an understanding of
the context (see Figure 20).
Figure 20: Panorama from the roof of Kamakura City Hall
4.93
City Government Officers then explained their responses to the questions sent to
them in advance in preparation for the visit. They confirmed that, since the national
decentralisation process began, it is now much easier for local governments to work
with and on the wishes of residents and to undertake locally specific project as they
see fit. The city government is therefore more able to be supportive of citizens who
wish to undertake machizukuri activities. Often, groups of residents will visit city hall
with a proposal to undertake a particular project. The city government will then offer
guidance and advice on the relevant laws and will also provide other forms of
support, such as seminars and discussions about the proposal with city government
staff and consultants. Consultants are subsidised by the city government to act as a
neutral party between the city and residents.
4.94
If residents have similar views regarding the future of a particular piece of land, the
city sometimes buys the land to help the community fulfil their intentions, although
this is not always possible to due resource limitations.
4.95
Kamakura has a ‘People’s Town Network, which has been an incorporated
association since 2003 (t was previously a voluntary group) and since 2004, under
the Landscape Act, the Network has also been designated as a Landscape
Improvement Institution. This group is a major player in machizukuri activities in
Kamakura and works closely with citizens. There are also several other groups, such
as Kamakura Scenic Beauty Conservation Federation, Kamakura Civic Green
Conservation Group and various NPOs, which seek in particular to conserve the
green infrastructure and heritage sites in and around Kamakura. The city government
subsidise the efforts of these groups financially, including providing volunteer
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insurance and purchase of land and culturally or historically important buildings
where possible. Additionally, the city government have prepared a ‘Green Basic Plan’
under the Ancient Capital Preservation Law with the involvement of the various
groups and other residents to ensure that Kamakura’s character is protected.
4.96
The city also supports residents in participating in preparing the city masterplan. This
includes similar consultations on planning documents in England, by publicising the
release of the masterplan via the internet and news release and then inviting
comment until some degree of agreement is found. However, in Kamakura, in
preparing the 1998 city masterplan, there were also citizen workshops and
committees. ‘Citizen’s participation and machizukuri’ is listed as the top priority at the
front of the plan. The plan is reviewed every 5 years and the same types of citizen
involvement take place each time. City officers did remark that there have been
cases, as is sometime the cases in England, where citizens collaborate to submit
many sheets of the same comments each with a different name at the bottom. There
are also similar issues with the dominance of retired people in community activities
and in responses to city masterplan consultations. However, since the 2011
earthquake and resulting tsunami, the number of young people wanting to get
involved in community activities is increasing.
4.97
In addition to the city masterplan, 9 areas in Kamakura are registered to prepare
District Plans; however, developers are the main players in all cases. The city is
currently supporting a citizens’ group who are beginning the preparation of a District
Plan to help them ensure that citizens retain ownership of the plan and use it as a
model case. District Plans often contain measures to protect the historic environment
such as design requirements. City officers explained that it is not difficult to start a
plan as residents are enthusiastic and have many good ideas, but that the difficulty
arises when these ideas conflict.
4.98
In terms of individual planning applications, a special ordinance in the city requires
developers to undertake community consultation depending on the size of the
development they are proposing. Below 5000m2, developments have to be
announced on by the city government and the developer. Any developments over
5000m2 require a briefing to be held for residents by the developer, further to which
residents can request a public hearing depending on their opinion of the proposals.
Following any hearing, a committee of citizens and planning experts draw up
guidance for the developers based on the outcomes of the hearing. However, whilst
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the developers are expected to reflect this guidance in amending their plans, it is not
a requirement.
4.99
As such, Kamakura City officials felt that whilst the city government tries to create a
supportive system and approach for citizens but that laws and ordinances supporting
or developed through machizukuri were often not used to their full effect, for
example, when they are only guidance rather than policy.
4.100 The discussions with professors at Bunkyo University visit very much helped to
consolidate the findings of the trip. The findings of the trip were discussed and
thoughts aired and this helped to clarify and develop some emerging trends form the
locations visited and examples drawn out. Professors also highlighted some of their
own experiences in working with communities based on a workshop method taken
form a German approach – planungszelle – which is becoming popular in Japan.
They explained the benefits of machizukuri in terms of educating citizens about
different issues, using citizens experiences to moderate a return to old ways in order
to get the best out of them and recognising that it is not essential to wait until the best
way is found before taking action, but finding a better way is enough, reflecting on the
old and undertaking trial and error to evolve the new.
4.101 Following the discussion with the Professors, students of the planning and tourism
departments had come together and in groups, had produced a series of
presentations especially for the visit, setting out their ideas for how machizukuri could
be used to help address a range of current tourism and other issues in the region.
Their ideas included;

Ensuring that the settlements in the area around Mount Fuji which has
recently been designated as a world heritage site, benefit from and are not
harmed by the resulting increase in tourism by enhancing linkages between
local tourism businesses, promoting the area in a more holistic way to
encourage longer stays, addressing the issue of increased waste and
ensuring residents’ ownership of the projects;

Improving the tourism revenue for the popular day-trip area of Hakone by
promoting the area to forging tourists, promoting alternative accommodation
options to widen the visitor audience, increasing the number of festivals so
that locals benefit too and linking tourism to local industries to increase jobs
for locals;

Creating ‘citizens’ opinion groups’ to aid the government in collecting local
people’s opinions and utilising them;
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Undertaking research in Kamakura to establish whether focusing of heritage
preservation and tourism is really what residents want and;

Developing a better relationship between the local government, the local
waste reduction committee and residents to encourage participation in the
4Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle) waste management system in Chigasaki.
4.102 The visit to Kamakura and Chigasaki therefore were especially useful in
consolidating thoughts on the findings of the trip and providing further confirmation
that some examples and information were common, and applicable across Japan, as
well as gaining an insight into what the younger generation thought about the
potential of machizukuri to address to real-life issues in their area. Following the
presentations, there was an opportunity to mix with the students and discuss
thoughts on potential ways of getting the community involved in planning for
example. One student in particular had a great enthusiasm for finding a way of
addressing the difficulties of achieving consensus amongst residents and was very
keen to discuss thoughts and English experiences in this matter.
Conclusion
4.103 Overall, the findings from the various locations visited provide a wide-ranging insight
into machizukuri and are mutually supportive highlighting some interesting trends.
They also complement the findings from the secondary research.
4.104 Taken together, the results of the questionnaire and interviews identify the following
headline findings:

Machizukuri is used to address a wide range of local issues in a variety of
different ways;

There is evidence of strong relationships within communities and between
communities and local governments. There are also other relationships at
play, between communities and Neighbourhood Associations, NPOs,
academics, professional planning consultants and architects. There is also
evidence of some familiar issues regarding difficulties in relationships within
communities, between communities and local governments and between
communities and the private sector;

There is evidence that machizukuri does empower communities and is aiding
the devolution of power to the local level, however, there is also evidence that
communities in Japan have on the one hand had greater autonomy in some
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respects than their English counterparts for many years and on the other,
have an inherent strength as a result of cultural and historical factors;

Certain types and aspects of machizukuri have similarities to Neighbourhood
Planning and machizukuri as a whole relates to activities that are considered
to represent Localism in England;

There are a number of lessons that can be galvanised from the findings and
experiences in Japan resulting from this study.
4.105 These findings will be explored in more detail in section 5.
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5. Discussion
Introduction
5.1
This section brings the key findings of the study together, informing a response to
each of the five questions asked of the study and listed in paragraph 1.15. The
discussion is presented in relation to the research questions in the following order;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What key issues is machizukuri used to address;
What are the relationships within community groups and between
community groups and local government;
Is machizukuri devolving genuine power to the local level;
What comparisons are there between machizukuri and aspects of
Localism such as neighbourhood planning;
What lessons that can be learned from machizukuri practices and
experiences in Japan.
Key issues
5.2
The results have shown that a great number of different issues can be addressed
through machizukuri and the scope is apparently endless – communities can come
together in the various ways demonstrated in the examples in this report to address
almost any local issue that arises from festivals to waste management and from
linking disparate age groups to providing views and guidance on how individual
planning applications might be amended to better suit their context. This is supported
by the secondary research which identified an equally wide variety of issues
addressed through machizukuri.
5.3
Despite the evident variety, many of the examples found in this study were strongly
heritage related but in turn, these had wider benefits beyond heritage conservation.
This shows a different angle to the diversity of machizukuri; as well as being diverse
in the number of issues addressed through machizukuri generally, it can also be said
that individual machizukuri activities also have the potential to deliver multiple
benefits. The example of Kashima demonstrated this particularly well, delivering on
tourism, economic, educational and housing aims in addition to conserving areas of
important built heritage and heritage in the form of traditional skills and produce, all
through a basically heritage-driven project.
5.4
Given the diversity of and potential multiple benefits offered by machizukuri, it is
interesting to consider the implications of the fact that this disparate activity and
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multiplicity is recognised under a single banner – machizukuri. Sorensen & Funck
(2007) refer to difficulties in research into machizukuri because of its diversity but
experiences of this study suggest that whilst it is true to say that research outcomes
of one case of machizukuri may be unlikely to be automatically representative of
another, the inclusion of so many different activities under a single ‘brand’ highlights
and aids recognition in Japan of the fact that these disparate activities have intrinsic
commonality in that they are all working towards shared basic aims. That is, they are
all contributing towards increasing the liveability of places and ultimately the
sustainability of places. These incidentally are also among the key aims of spatial
planning and among the overall objectives of many local councils in England.
5.5
Despite this, in England, whilst we undertake many activities that are similar to those
considered to be machizukuri in Japan and whilst we recognise them as good, we do
not often recognise that they too have a very valuable role to play in helping up
towards these common aims and should be recognised as such. Chris Brown (2013
a & b) had very similar suggestions regarding recognition of the benefits of
community activities and community-led action. If we want places to become more
sustainable and more liveable, more genuinely local power and local place-making
and truly spatial planning, it would be beneficial to give greater attention and weight
to the wide range of activities that help to build communities and thus, contribute to
these goals.
Relationships
5.6
It is evident form the various examples explored in this study that although Japan
does see the issues we in England are familiar with in terms of the types of people
that get involved in community activities and planning consultations and the
difficulties of getting people involved, there is a lot of cooperation within communities
and between communities and not only local government but between communities
and others such as academics, private professional planners and architects, and
NPOs. These relationships have developed through the provision of support
networks for communities undertaking activities, genuine engagement, allowing the
community to lead activities in their direction whilst offering a helping hand where it is
needed and directing adequate resources towards this support as a valued and
necessary approach to place-shaping. This has built trust between communities and
other parties and whilst it cannot be suggested that there are no difficulties involved
or that the financial implications would not be significant, the value that this approach
has generated cannot be underestimated. The opportunities provided to communities
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through the support networks and dedicated centres and institutes have created a
basis from which relationships can evolve and from which difficulties can be
minimised or resolved.
5.7
Also evident was a greater sense of acting for the greater and public good than is
necessarily evident in England. This is reinforced by historic and cultural factors such
as (but not exclusively) rice cultivation, matsuri, mixed-use communities,
Neighbourhood Associations and very small scale administrative divisions, which
have had great bearing on the inherent strength within Japanese communities.
These factors are being challenged by modern life and external influences to some
extent, for example, the reduced participation of people living in apartment blocks,
but on the other hand, all the locations visited reported that involvement is increasing
and that participation rates amongst the young in particular have increased
significantly since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. This shows that relationships
within communities and the desire to undertake community-based activities remain
strong.
Power
5.8
In light of the inherent strength of Japanese communities, the cultural factors that
influence this and the fact that very low tier administrative divisions in Japan have
had some degree of autonomy over local issues historically, it seems odd to suggest
that machizukuri is devolving power to communities. However, many of the people
involved in relaying the examples explored in this study referred to the top-down
approach and hierarchical nature of formal planning in Japan in particular and
indeed, some key legislation supporting machizukuri, such as the NPO law in 1998
and Decentralisation Act in 2000, has only come into play relatively recently and has
instigated an increase in the capacity of civil society in Japan.
5.9
This means that whilst many aspects of machizukuri, such as festivals, have been
happening for many years, long before the term was coined, it is only in recent years
that wider structures and mechanisms have been in place to support communities
and unleash the inherent power possessed within them and also that machizukuri
activities relating to formal planning have come into play. As such, it can be said that
rather than devolving power to communities, machizukuri is now a stronger force,
particularly in relation to formal planning activities involving communities, which in
turn facilitates the harnessing of a power that communities already had.
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Comparisons with Localism and Neighbourhood Planning
5.10
Machizukuri as a whole is very similar to Localism in that many, if not all of the
activities undertaken underneath the machizukuri umbrella are those that the
government in England is advocating under Localism, for example, voluntary activity,
community events, community run facilities and local level plan-making.
5.11
Examples from Kyoto, Kamakura and Nagoya in particular highlight the use of
machizukuri ordinances and District Plans. Both are methods set out as provisions in
Japanese planning legislation enabling local governments and / or communities, if
they wish to, to prepare plans to address local planning issues specific to particular
areas. In these ways, in the requirements for community participation and the
involvement of consultants in the process, these provisions are very similar to
Neighbourhood Planning.
5.12
A further comparison is that Neighbourhood Plans could arguably be more useful to
rural communities, as machizukuri ordinances are in Japan, than they are to urban
areas in that Local Plans in England (or extant documents produced under the former
Local Development Framework system) generally provide less policy direction in
rural areas than they do in larger villages, towns and cities. Although Neighbourhood
Plans also serve the same purpose in urban areas as District Plans do in Japan.
5.13
There are some differences however, particularly in the role of local governments
and the level of support provided to communities by local governments. The level of
resource put into community workshops, seminars and other participatory methods to
support the preparation of the plans is much greater and the provision of dedicated
venues and quasi-autonomous support organisations such as Kyoto Centre for
Community Collaboration and Nagoya Urban Institute as par for the course is
virtually unheard of in England. Additionally, Neighbourhood Plans are for the
communities to develop themselves rather than being an option for either the
community or the local government to instigate and they can also allocate land for
particular uses, which is a rare use of District Plans (although these can be taken
further to create District Development Plans which could include allocations) or
ordinances.
5.14
As it is only very recently that the first Neighbourhood Plans in England have been
passed and it cannot yet be assessed whether the approach will be successful. As
such, it would be wrong to suggest that anything about Neighbourhood Planning
should be changed in light of the Japanese experiences but the similarities are worth
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bearing in mind so that comparisons can continue as Neighbourhood Planning in
England evolves.
Lessons and recommendations
5.15
The examples explored in this study offer a number of lessons;
5.16
Lesson 1 - The importance of recognising and capitalising upon the benefits and
contributions of the multiple activities of communities towards the common aims of
sustainability, liveability and place making, and their support of the principles of
Localism.
5.17
Recommendation 1- Develop an increased understanding of the existing community
activities taking place in individual areas and introduce mechanisms for ensuring that;
these activities are recognised for their contributions to planning aims and local
councils’ wider aims and communities can see evidence of this recognition; these
activities receive the support they need and; if there are geographical or topical areas
where activities are lacking and/or are needed, action is taken to help instigate
activity, for example by linking communities with others who have undertaken similar
activities or with relevant NPOs.
5.18
Lesson 2 - The importance of support networks for communities involved in
Neighbourhood Planning in particular, but also for any community or group mobilising
to act for the good of their community.
5.19
Recommendation 2 - Consider the importance of genuine community engagement
and ownership of plans and projects in building relationships with communities as
well as in gaining acceptance of outcomes and in supporting Localism and ensure
that appropriate resource and support networks are identified to fully deliver this.
5.20
Lesson 3 – The importance of an understanding of the historic, cultural and
demographic factors in a place that might have bearing on a community in terms of
how that community works, the types of support they might need in order to
undertake machizukuri-type activities and the methods of engagement that might be
appropriate
5.21
Recommendation 3 - Be clear of the cultural and historic factors influencing a
community’s ability to mobilise and engage, including factors that may not be
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immediately obvious as relevant, and ensure that engagement activities and support
mechanisms are targeted appropriately taking these factors into account.
5.22
Lesson 4 - The importance, for financial and resource efficiency, of tailoring activities
and projects so that multiple benefits can be gained from them as well as recognising
these multiple benefits.
5.23
Recommendation 4 – Carefully consider the links between projects and partners
and identify where efforts can be combined to ensure maximum benefit.
5.24
Lesson 5 - Japan’s demographic situation (ageing and declining population, low birth
rate) may well be a key factor in enabling resources to be directed towards
supporting communities in machizukuri activities of all types and on the contrary, that
the heavy focus on housebuilding and economic development in England may mean
that the support of communities required to get the most out of Localism and
Neighbourhood Planning is not currently possible.
5.25
Recommendation 5 – Consider further research (see also section 6), particularly as
Neighbourhood Planning evolves, to try to establish whether the current approach in
England is compatible with achieving the aims of Localism, Neighbourhood Planning
sustainability, liveability and truly spatial planning in light of the level of support and
the alternative local government approaches required for communities to successfully
undertake many machizukuri activities and achieve genuine engagement and
ownership of projects in Japan.
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6. Conclusion, evaluation and recommendations
Overall conclusion
6.1
Overall, it can be concluded that machizukuri is a concept that has clear roots in the
cultural and historic context of Japan and which is now being nurtured through the
development of civil society and the decentralisation process, whilst also contributing
to them. Machizukuri is diverse and supports the empowerment of communities. It
has strong reflections of Localism and aspects of it have significant similarities with
Neighbourhood Planning. Despite having its roots in the history and culture of Japan,
machizukuri does nevertheless present some important lessons and points of
reinforcement for English planners and local authorities more generally in their efforts
to engage and work with and alongside communities to work towards creating more
liveable places.
Evaluation
6.2
It can be said that the study went very well overall. The key objective of gaining an
understanding of and lessons from machizukuri to aid in the understanding of and
possibilities for Localism, civil society, community engagement and Neighbourhood
Planning was achieved through exploration of;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.3
The key issues is machizukuri used to address;
The relationships within community groups and between community groups
and local government;
Whether machizukuri is devolving genuine power to the local level;
What comparisons there are between machizukuri and aspects of Localism
such as neighbourhood planning and;
What lessons can be learned from machizukuri practices and experiences in
Japan.
In doing so, the study has also provided an insight into how machizukuri works and
adding to the existing research and literature on the topic in English, aiding a fuller
understanding of the diverse concept of machizukuri and the lessons it has to offer.
6.4
The principles of the original proposal were kept to and although some changes had
to be made to the schedule do to availability of contacts, time constraints or lack of
contacts, these changes made for improved study outcomes through improved
efficiency and the inclusion of alternative opportunities. The value of incorporating
some flexibility into the schedule proved very fruitful, enabling additional opportunities
arising in Japan to be taken. The unscheduled visit to Kashima for example made an
64
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2013
incredibly valuable contribution to the results. Unfortunately a further unscheduled
opportunity, to attend a machizukuri workshop in Tokyo could not be taken up,
primarily due to a lack of information about the time and place combined with onward
travel plans for that day. The schedule was left as open as possible to enable the
opportunity to be taken up but eventually, it could not be left any longer to await
confirmation of the time and place before the travel plans had to be confirmed.
6.5
A good range of locations was visited and the people visited were all incredibly
knowledgeable and experienced in machizukuri. As such, the findings have the
benefit of having been drawn from a variety of contexts and high quality sources,
adding to their validity.
6.6
Whilst travel between locations was not a problem, the number of locations visited
did present some practical challenges in bringing together the sheer amount of
information to draw out the findings. It is still considered that for the purposes of this
particular study, visiting a broad range of locations was appropriate, however, visiting
a slightly smaller number of locations but spending more time in each might be more
beneficial, particularly if a study were undertaken to focus on particular aspects of
machizukuri.
6.7
In addition to providing high quality information, those visited were incredibly
hospitable, friendly, helpful and very interested in the study and planning in England.
They often presented gifts, provided meals and / or provided large quantities of
supplementary documentation to support information they had given verbally.
Additionally, the level of staff and time resource made available prior to and during
the visit was incredible. Often presentations had been put together especially for the
visit and in several locations 5 or more staff members of an organisation would attend
the meetings and take part in the discussion. In this sense, Japan was an easy place
to undertake research.
6.8
On the whole, language was not a problem as many contacts spoke English, in other
cases, the person who provided the contacts acted as an interpreter and in others, an
interpreter was secured at expenses-only rates. With the greatest of respect to those
who acted as interpreters, on a very small number of occasions however things did
get a little lost in translation, making it difficult to get an answer to a particular
question or to retain control of the discussion and keep it focused on the research
questions. However, this in itself often illuminated points of interest or relevant issues
that might otherwise have been overlooked and cultural factors also have to be taken
65
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
into account; taking greater control of the conversation would have to be done very
tactfully so as to avoid offending anyone.
6.9
Naturally, it would be beneficial to improve Japanese language skills further
beforehand if the study were undertaken again. Utilising an interpreter who had a
detailed planning knowledge might also be useful but equally, use of interpreters with
no formal planning knowledge assisted in its own way as it meant the discussion was
less open to bias by the interpreter and also meant that questions were asked that
provided useful information that might not necessarily have been asked by someone
with detailed planning knowledge.
6.10
Finally, it was felt that more information could have been gathered on the financial
side of the delivery of many of the examples of machizukuri. In some cases, there
were clear funding streams, such as the World Health Organisation in the case of
Owariasahi, memberships fees in the case of Neighbourhood Associations and local
governments in other cases, it did not seem likely that these streams would or could
have covered the full cost of activities or of provisions such as Nagoya Urban
Institute and dedicated machizukuri centres. Therefore, it would have been useful to
include a question on funding mechanisms, although the appropriateness of this
would have to be explored as discussing finances is not necessarily favoured in
Japanese culture.
Opportunities for further research
6.11
There are a range of potential opportunities for further research but a smaller number
of specific opportunities have been identified. Particularly useful might be a detailed
comparative study looking at the processes and outcomes of a small number of
District Plans and Machizukuri ordinances alongside a selection of Neighbourhood
Plans in England. This would need to be undertaken once the front-runner
Neighbourhood Plans have had a little more time to reach implementation stage.
6.12
A study that focuses on particular types of machizukuri of machizukuri in particular
area might be beneficial, visiting a much smaller number of locations but spending a
greater amount of time at each in order to gain more in-depth understanding.
However, the varied nature of machizukuri has been identified as presenting
difficulties in terms of this approach to research as a study of one particular example
of machizukuri might provide only very limited insight, if any, to the workings of
another. Nevertheless, it could be useful follow-up research to the broader research
detailed in this document.
66
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
6.13
2013
Other follow-up research could usefully include attendance at machizukuri workshops
and other events. This would enable the gathering of views of a greater number of
residents than was possible in this study as well as facilitating more detailed
observation of the relationships within communities and between communities and
other organisations such as local governments, NPOS and consultants. Research to
further explore the influence of Neighbourhood Associations and the current
relationships between them and the wider community would also be beneficial.
6.14
Finally, it would be beneficial to explore the resource mechanisms that enable local
governments to support communities so fully in machizukuri activities. It would be
particularly useful generally, but in the context of Localism and Neighbourhood
Planning, to consider whether the level of support provided is feasible in Japan
because of different priorities, leading to different resource division or for some other
reason.
67
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
7. Dissemination
7.1 This section sets out how the findings of the study have been or will be disseminated to
ensure that they are brought to the attention of the wider planning community and other
interested parties.
7.2 In addition to this report, which it is expected will appear on the RTPI’s website
alongside the reports detailing the studies of previous George Pepler Award winners,
the following actions have disseminated or will disseminate the findings of the study;

A shorter summary report of the study evaluation and findings fulfilling the
conditions of the Japan Foundation study grant has been submitted to the
Japan Foundation;

The Japan Foundation will also be sent a copy of this report;

A presentation of the study findings was included in a Cumbria Planning
Training Scheme International Planning event, held on 11th September 2013
at the Lake District National Park Authority Offices in Kendal, Cumbria (see
Appendix 4);

A presentation has been given (6th September 2013) to interested staff,
including senior management and the Chief Executive, at South Lakeland
District Council and the presentation will be undertaken again on 13th
September 2013 for staff who could not make the first presentation (see
Appendix 5);

This report will be distributed electronically to all who contributed to the study
in any way, including all contacts in Japan. Additionally, a variety of other
parties have requested and will receive copies of the report such as the
Japan Local Government Centre in London, a local community group
involved in Neighbourhood Planning in South Cumbria, the Arnside &
Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management, a staff member
at Friends of the Lake District and a National Grid representative.
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2013
8. Bibliography
Brown, C. (2013a) Appreciate your local volunteers, Planning, Issue 1965, 23 August 2013,
Haymarket Business Media, London
Brown, C. (2013b) The Value of Citizen Led regeneration [Online]
http://chrisbrown.regen.net/2013/08/05/the-value-of-citizen-led-regeneration/ [last accessed
10 September 2013]
Brumann, C. & Schulz, E. (Eds.) (2012) Urban Spaces in Japan: Cultural and social
perspectives, Routledge, Abingdon.
Department for Communities and Local Government (2012) National Planning Policy
Framework [Online]
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6077/2116950
.pdf [last accessed July 27 2013]
Department for Communities and Local Government (2011) A plain English guide to the
Localism Act [Online]
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/5959/1896534
.pdf [last accessed July 27 2013]
Echanove, M. (2008) Master Cities & Defiant Neighborhoods: Tokyo to Mumbai [Online]
Available http://www.irmgard-coninxstiftung.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/urbanplanet/identities/ws2/021%20Echanove.pdf [last
accessed August 12 2013]
Evans, N. (2002) Machi-zukuri as a new paradigm in Japanese Urban Planning: reality or
myth? [Online] http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0955580022000008745 [last
accessed 11 April 2012]
Evans, N. (undated, thought to be 1990s) Discourses of Urban Community Planning: A
comparison between Britain and Japan [Online]
http://www.shef.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.71434!/file/evans.pdf [last accessed September 10
2013]
Hague, C. (2012) Localism in Japan: collaborative planning or rule by the courts? [Online]
http://cliffhague.planningresource.co.uk/2012/02/28/Localism-in-japan-collaborativeplanning-or-rule-by-the-courts/ [last accessed July 27 2013]
Healey, P. (2009) Developing Neighbourhood Management Capacity in Kobe, Japan:
Interactions between civil society and formal planning institutions [Online]
http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/GRHS2009CaseStudyChapter04Kobe.pdf [last
accessed August 12 2013]
Hein, C. & Pelletier, P. (Eds.) (2006) Cities, Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan,
Routledge, Abingdon
Japan 400 (2013) Welcome to Japan 400 [Online] http://japan400.com/ [last accessed
August 18 2013]
69
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Parker, G. (2010) Michi-no-eki – An opportunity for the rural economy? Town & Country
Planning, Vol. 79, No. 7/8, July/August 2010, Town & Country Planning Association, London
Parker, G. & Takata, A. (2007) Governance and Community Management of Public Assets:
The experience of Musashino, Japan, Review of Asian and Pacific Studies, No. 32, 2007.
Parker, G. & Murayama, M. (2005) Doing the groundwork? Transferring a UK environmental
planning approach to Japan, International Planning Studies 10:2, pp. 105-127 Routledge,
London
Royal Town Planning Institute (2012) George Pepler International Award [Online]
http://www.rtpi.org.uk/events/awards/george-pepler-international-award/ [last accessed
August 12 2013]
Sorensen, A. & Funck, C. (Eds.) (2007) Living Cities in Japan: Citizens’ Movements,
machizukuri and local environments. Nissan Institute / Routledge Japanese Studies Series,
Routledge, Abingdon.
Vinken, H., Nishimura, Y., White, B. & Deguchi, M. (Eds.) (2010) Civic Engagement in
Contemporary Japan: Established and Emerging Repertoires. Springer, New York.
Watanabe, S-ichi. (2006) Machizukuri in Japan: A [sic] historical perspective on participatory
community-building initiatives in Sorensen, A. & Funck, C. (Eds.) (2007) Living Cities in
Japan: Citizens’ Movements, machizukuri and local environments. Nissan Institute /
Routledge Japanese Studies Series, Routledge, Abingdon.
Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Japan
http://www.facts-about-japan.com/maps.html
http://www.nui.or.jp/ENGLISH/index.htm
http://www.alliance-healthycities.com/htmls/about/index_about.html
http://japanchapter.alliance-healthycities.com/data/2012/Owariasahi_poster.pdf
http://www.acros.or.jp/english/
www.groundwork.org.uk
http://machi.hitomachi-kyoto.jp/index_e.html
http://machi.hitomachi-kyoto.jp/doc/KyotoCenterForCommunityCollaboration.pdf
http://chrisbrown.regen.net/2013/08/05/the-value-of-citizen-led-regeneration/
Photos
Cover photo: Sake factory, Kashima, Saga Prefecture in in use as a community event venue
All photographs used in this report were taken by Lorayne Woodend or those assisting with
the study, in Japan during the study.
70
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
9. Appendices
Appendix 1: George Pepler International Award Proposal
Appendix 2: Trip schedule
Appendix 3: Sample questions
Appendix 4: Evidence of inclusion in Cumbria Planning Training Scheme International
Planning Event – event flier and agenda
Appendix 5: Evidence of dissemination to South Lakeland District Council staff –
extract from staff magazine
Appendix 6: Michi-no-eki (road station), Munakata and Green Infrastructure in
Fukuoka
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Appendix 1: George Pepler International Award Proposal
Lorayne Woodend BSc. MA (Dist.) - George Pepler Award Application Statement
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
1. Introduction
1.1 This statement sets out a proposal to study the practice of machizukuri (‘community building’) in Japan over a
period of 3 weeks. It is proposed that the study will be beneficial in order to gain a better understanding of the
concept, drawing comparisons between machizukuri and neighbourhood/community planning in England and
exploring whether machizukuri offers lessons or insights of value to neighbourhood/community planning.
1.2 Firstly, this statement sets out the background and rationale for the proposed study before detailing how the
study would be undertaken. A separate sheet then sets out details of costs associated with the proposal.
2. Localism, Neighbourhood Planning and the National Planning Policy Framework
2.1 In England, The Localism Act, which came into force in November 2011, presents some key changes for
planning. Communities can now prepare their own Neighbourhood or Community Plans (provided they are in
general conformity with the Local Plan drawn up by the Local Authority), which will be given significant weight in
planning decisions. Additionally, Local Authorities now have less prescription to adhere to in the preparation of
their Local Plans given the removal of planning policy statements and the publication of the National Planning
Policy Framework. The changes are intended to devolve more planning powers to the local level, enabling Local
Authorities and communities to include in their plans what they feel is most appropriate for their area.
3. Machizukuri
3.1 Machizukuri developed in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s as a civil society reaction to the negative environmental
and social consequences of rapid economic growth and centralised control of development associated with that
growth. Although machizukuri is often translated as ‘community building’, there is no single English term that fully
encompasses its meaning. However, it can be thought of in many respects as a form of what we are now
beginning to understand as Localism, particularly insofar as it relates to spatial planning. The term machizukuri is
used in literature6 to refer to and encompass a wide range of concepts and activities such as community
involvement in planning and the work of citizens’ environmental and social movements in urban change.
Machizukuri activities can be instigated by community groups, local government or NGOs for example, but can
also involve higher tiers of government seeking to promote citizen involvement in decisions about their area.
4. Rationale
4.1 Local Authority Planners in England are beginning to see changes in their work as communities begin to play out
the provisions of the Localism Act, and many face a steep learning curve as they adapt to the new requirements.
Whilst there are many differences between England and Japan, both are industrialised, developed, densely
populated, island nations, they are similar demographically and have been subject to recent decentralisation
policies. Both are home to generally educated and environmentally and socially concerned populations. Whilst
machizukuri has been practiced in Japan for several decades, Localism has just come into play in England7.
4.2 Additionally, whilst research into machizukuri is being undertaken in Japan, there is limited wider knowledge of
the concept and limited machizukuri literature in English, offering little opportunity for English planners to learn
about or from machizukuri experiences. As such it would be worthwhile to explore whether machizukuri offers
any insight into what we might expect to see in England in terms of how communities and groups come together
and operate, the issues they are seeking to address and their relationship with and the role of local government
as the planning provisions of the Localism Act come into fruition.
6
Sorensen & Funck, 2007; Thumnoon, 2004
Local Agenda21 around the turn of the millennium was an international attempt to give local people more power over what happened in
their communities but it was met with little success when relatively few local authorities (or equivalents) prepared a Local Agenda 21 plan
7
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
4.3 As a local authority spatial planner, my role is heavily involved in community and stakeholder consultation and is
currently evolving in light of the planning provisions of the Localism Act. I have a strong interest in the role of the
community and civil society in planning and am very keen to explore how the practice of machizukuri in Japan
operates and how it relates to Localism and neighbourhood/community planning in England. I have over six
years’ experience of local spatial planning and have recently completed a dissertation for my MA in Town and
Country Planning which investigated the use and knowledge of international planning examples and experiences
amongst local authority planners in England. Furthermore, I am currently studying Japanese, am familiar with the
country having visited on three occasions and have friends and contacts there who have offered to assist, for
example, by providing accommodation (detailed further in section 5). Collectively, this will enable me to
undertake the proposed study very efficiently, avoiding barriers such as culture-shock and unfamiliarity and
minimising language issues whilst having the benefit of being able to apply knowledge, understanding and
experience of local spatial planning and the study of aspects of international planning.
5. Methodology & Itinerary
5.1 It is proposed to visit local authorities and community groups in several locations in Japan, and through
interviews, observation and discussion, explore the way machizukuri works from both perspectives, in particular,
seeking to draw out;
 The key issues each is seeking to address through machizukuri;
 The relationships within community groups and between community groups and local authorities;
 Whether each feels machizukuri is providing genuine power to the local level;
 Comparisons between machizukuri and aspects of Localism such as neighbourhood planning.
The proposed itinerary will involve visits in both the metropolis of Tokyo and smaller towns and cities in order to
enable findings to be drawn from differing contexts.
5.2 It is proposed to undertake the study over three weeks (exclusive of travel to and from Japan), heading first to
the Kamakura area to meet with the municipal council and community groups involved in machizukuri projects,
before moving on to the Nagoya area. In Nagoya I will be hosted by the Nagoya Urban Institute, where I will
investigate machizukuri activities involving residents and public and private sector partnerships. North of Nagoya,
in Inuyama, I will be hosted by city councillor Takahiro Kuse and will explore conservation and regeneration
machizukuri activities in the Old Town area. From Inuyama, it is proposed to head to the Kyoto area where both
Kyoto and nearby Nara have dedicated machizukuri centres before ending the study with a visit to the
Shimokitazawa district of Tokyo where citizens participate in activities seeking to enable collaborative and
regenerative planning in their area in the face of proposed large scale redevelopment plans, including the
preparation and submission to the city council of alternative proposals and proposals for participatory planning
approaches.
5.3 It is proposed to spend 3-5 days in each location (Nagoya and Inuyama are to be visited together using Inuyama
as the base whilst Kyoto and Nara are to be visited together using Kyoto as the base) depending on what is most
convenient for those organisations I propose to visit, hosts and travel arrangements within Japan.
5.4 The precise dates of travel to and from Japan will be decided prior to travel based on a balance between
minimising flight/travel costs and convenience for both those I propose to meet with/interview in order to conduct
the study and my accommodation hosts. Details such as the exact number of days and dates of arrival at and
departure from individual locations will be decided prior to travel where necessary whilst allowing some flexibility
in the schedule, for example, to follow up any key or unexpected findings or information gathered whilst in Japan.
6. Conclusion
6.1 Studying how groups involved in machizukuri come together and operate, the issues they seek to address, their
relationship with local government and the role of local government in working with them will be of benefit to
English planners. It will offer insight into how a practiced concept similar to Localism works in a nation with
similarities to ours at a crucial period when English planners’ roles are beginning to evolve to accommodate the
planning provisions of the Localism Act.
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
6.2 The proposed study seeks to do this by visiting groups and local authorities practicing machizukuri in a selection
of both larger and smaller Japanese communities and with different issues of focus.
6.3 Complemented by experience and knowledge of both local spatial planning and Japan, existing contacts in the
country, a basic but improving command of Japanese and my experience and interest in researching
international planning, the study and resulting report can most definitely be undertaken and delivered properly
and efficiently within the funding available and time allocated.
Costings
Flight: Heathrow – Tokyo Narita/Haneda return………………………………………………………
c.£600
(Exact price is dependent on exact dates of travel)
Accommodation…………………………………………………………………………………………. ………..£400
Friends living in Chigasaki have offered to let me stay with them for as long as is required if my application is
successful. They are also able to offer general support for example with translation or answering any queries I
may have whilst in Japan. Accommodation in Chigasaki would act as a base for research in Kamakura and
Shimokitazawa (the Japan Rail pass is valid for journeys between Chigasaki and both these locations). My hosts
in Inuyama/Nagoya are willing to provide a homestay during my time there and I will stay in simple hotel or youth
hostel accommodation when in Kyoto/Nara.
Train/subway travel within Japan………………………………………………………………………… £482
(inclusive of £462 for a 21-day Japan Rail pass, which allows unlimited travel on Japan Rail routes for 21 days
from the first use and will be suitable for all the journeys outside of Tokyo, travel to and from Narita airport and
some journeys within Tokyo e.g. Yamanote circular line), £12 for a Suica rail pass and an assumption of an
average of 2 standard subway journeys (£2 each) each day of the 5 days I propose to spend in Tokyo – a total
of £20 (£12 covered by the basic pass price, plus £8 pass top-ups).
I do not consider it necessary to include costings for meals as this is a personal cost one would have to provide
for in any case. Additionally, some meals (e.g. whilst staying with friends in Chigasaki) will be provided.
Total: £1482
74
Flight
Retur
n to
Tokyo
1hr
Travel
home
Prepare to
leave
Free
Free
Travel to NRT
Free time - Chigasaki
Kamakura (walking tour)
Kamakura City Hall
Welco
me
meal'
Settle in Chigasaki
Bunkyo University
(Shonan Campus)
Travel to
Chigasaki
1hr
Travel to
Tokyo 1 hr
30mins
Free / prepare for tomorrow's meeting
Tokyo
Tokyo
Prepare to
leave
Tokyo
Prepare to
leave
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Kyoto
(Machizukuri
Centre)
Free
Settle Inuyama
Free
Free/ settle in Kyoto
Free
Free / prepare for tomorrow's meeting
Meet Hashimotosan
Kuze-san (Kondo-san)
Travel to Kyoto 1 hr
40 mins
B'fast / prepare
for meeting
B'fast /
Prepare to
leave
B'fast / prepare
for meeting
Inuyama - Kuze-san (Kondo-san)
15:00
Free
Settle in Fukuoka
Meet
Kondosan
Free
Settle Nagoya
Free time Tokyo
75
B'fast / prepare
for meeting
Travel to Inuyama 5-6 hrs
Tagawa (FPU)
Free
B'fast / Prepare to
leave
Free / prepare for meeting
Munakata
14:00
Free
Free / prepare for meeting
10:00
Free
Free
Meeting Vice
Governor of Pref
Kashima
Breakfast - meet
Nigel Stott
Travel to Fukuoka c.4hrs
13:00
Travel to
Nagoya
2hr 5
mins
Meet
Hideki
Koizumi
22:00
Nagoya (Urban Institute) Nonogaki-san
(Niwa-san)
12:00
Free time - Tokyo
21:00
B'fast / Prepare
to leave
08:00
Travel to Ueno
18:00
Free / prepare to leave
09:00
Free time Tokyo / prepare for meeting
11:00
Flight
16:00
17:00
Breakfast /
prepare for
meeting
07:00
Arri
ve
NR
T
20:00
Owariasahi Kito-san
06:00
Flight
19:00
Breakfast/Travel
to Owariasahi
Free / prepare for meeting
00:00-06:00
Jun30
Travel to H'row
23:00
Jul-15
Jul-14
Jul13
Jul12
Jul11
Jul-10
Jul09
Jul-08
Jul07
Jul-06
Jul-05
Jul-04
Jul-03
Jul-02
Jul01
Jun29
Jun-28
Jun27
Jun-26
Jun-25
Jun-24
Jun-23
Jun-22
Jun21
2013
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
Appendix 2: Trip schedule
A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Appendix 3: Sample questions
Lorayne Woodend
A study into the practice of machizukuri in Japan - June/July 2013
Who am I?
My name is Lorayne Woodend. I studied Geography and Environmental Management at University
and have recently completed a 3-year post-graduate degree in Town and Country Planning. I have
worked as a local government town planner in the north west of England for nearly 8 years.
Why am I doing the study?
I put forward a proposal to visit Japan to study machizukuri in response to a competition run by the
Royal Town Planning Institute in the UK. The prize was financial support to enable me to undertake
the proposed study. My proposal was accepted. I have visited Japan three times before and I like
Japan very much. I will be in Japan for 3 weeks visiting different people and organisations that are
involved in machizukuri. On my return to the UK, I will be required to publish a report of my findings.
What do I want to find out and discuss?
Primarily, I am interested in exploring the processes involved in machizukuri and the different ways
in which machizukuri works. In particular, however, it would be useful to find out how machizukuri is
evolving, the role of machizukuri in the planning system and also how the role of the Neighbourhood
Associations is evolving.
I would therefore like to find out, in your experience;









How is machizukuri currently used to enable people to participate in or influence the
preparation of development plans (e.g. municipal master plans, district plans)?;
How is machizukuri currently used to enable people to participate in or influence proposals
for individual new developments and regeneration proposals (e.g. the construction of a new
office or residential building);
What other issues is machizukuri commonly used to address in the Fukuoka area?
Does machizukuri give local people more influence over what happens in their area and has
this influence increased in recent years?;
What sorts of people (local residents) currently tend to be involved in machizukuri? E.g. age,
gender, social status of those involved and has this changed in recent years?;
What sorts of organisations are involved in machizukuri?;
What is the current role of Neighbourhood Associations in the planning process and in
machizukuri activities and has this changed over recent years?
What is the role and attitude of local government in relation to machizukuri activities?;
What are the current issues around machizukuri activities? (are the legal and planning
systems supportive of machizukuri, are citizens equipped to participate, would citizens like
to see any changes to the processes of machizukuri?).
Many thanks - I look forward to meeting with you.
Lorayne Woodend
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Appendix 4: Evidence of inclusion in Cumbria Planning Training
Scheme International Planning Event – event flier and agenda
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
2013
Cumbria Planning Training Scheme
International Planning Systems and Perspectives
Wednesday Sept 11th 2013 – LDNPA Offices, Murley Moss, Kendal, Cumbria
AGENDA
9.30am – Arrival and refreshments
10.00am – Lorayne Woodend, SLDC - Introduction – Why international planning?
10.10am – Richard Summers, Chairman, RTPI International Committee – International Work of the
Royal Town Planning Institute – an outline of the RTPI’s international strategy, objectives and
activities with international partners – international resources and opportunities for UK planners.
10.35am – Richard Evans, Cumbria County Council – Local example - Working on the W2E
(European) project – experiences, benefits, outcomes, downfalls.
11.00am – Questions and refreshments
11.25am - Mark Graham, Senior Planner & Urban Designer with CH2M Hill – will discuss his work in
Kuwait and other countries that CH2M Hill work in, investigating how this relates to planning in the
UK and what lessons can be learnt from international planning.
11.55am – Lorayne Woodend – Neighbourhood Planning and Localism – learning from machizukuri
in Japan
12.20pm – Questions
12.30pm - Viewpoint – supplied by Marion Frederiksen (chartered town planner living and working
in S Africa) (presented by Lorayne Woodend)
12.40pm – Discussion/round-up
1.00pm – Close
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2013
Appendix 5: Evidence of dissemination to South Lakeland District
Council staff – extract from staff magazine
A short article detailing the trip and some basic findings was placed in South Lakeland
District Council’s staff magazine, Inside Story.
Additionally, two presentations of the research trip and findings were made to South
Lakeland District Council staff. The first was promoted by email and through the article in the
staff magazine; the second came about as several staff wanted to see the presentation but
had been unable to attend on the original date and so was arranged via email and
discussion with the relevant staff.
Unfortunately as Inside Story is an internal magazine for South Lakeland District Council
staff, a link accessible to others could not be provided but the relevant page is provided
overleaf.
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A study into the practice of machizukuri (community building) in Japan
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Appendix 6: Michi-no-eki (road station), Munakata and Green
Infrastructure in Fukuoka
Michi-no-eki (road station) in Munakata:This is a purpose-built venue for the sale of local
produce and crafts to support local producers and craftspeople by providing a one-stop
location for locals to purchase these goods. It is incredibly popular and most days the
produce is sold out by lunchtime (see also paragraph 4.38).
Green infrastructure examples, Fukuoka – see also paragraph 4.39
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About the author
I am Lorayne Woodend. I have worked in the Development Strategy team as a Development
Plans Officer at South Lakeland District Council in Cumbria for almost 8 years. I grew up
with a strong interest in geography, planning (although I didn’t know that that was what it
was at the time!), human settlement and how things operate in other countries. Even at early
primary school age, I could often be found poring over or drawing maps or watching a
documentary about how people live in some far-away city. A particular interest in Japan
however, began when I first visited in 2007 and the study visit was my fourth trip to the
country.
Early in the second year of my Distance Learning M.A. in Town & Country Planning, when
researching an assignment on planning policy transfer for the European and International
Planning module of my course, a particular article by Echanove (2008) about how the
informal settlements of Mumbai are actually incredibly similar in urban form to many areas of
Tokyo – often described as one of the most liveable cities in the world - and what we can
learn from this. The article really inspired me and as a result, I went on to do my M.A.
dissertation on international planning, looking at the extent of knowledge and use of planning
ideas from abroad amongst planners in England.
I also became aware of the George Pepler International Award during my M.A. course, but
felt too busy with the course to also be able to put together a proposal to enter for the Award
in 2010. I finished my course early in December 2011 and in February 2012, by chance, I
read an article about a concept called machizukuri on Cliff Hague’s ‘World View’ via a link on
the Planning Daily emails (Hague, 2012). It was this that gave me the final inspiration I
needed to apply for the Award. Luckily, the closing date for award submissions in 2012 was
in early May. Had it been anything later, I would have exceeded the age restriction to be
eligible for the Award!
The study visit to Japan really was an incredible experience and I am incredibly grateful to all
those who have supported me in any way to undertake the study, especially the RTPI and
the Japan Foundation. I have kept in touch with contacts made whilst in Japan and am
returning in October. Although this next visit will not be research-based, I do plan to re-visit
some of the people and places I visited during the study as well as new locations and look
forward to maintaining my links with Japan for many years to come.
Lorayne Woodend
BSc. (Hons.) Geography & Environmental Management, MA (Dist.) Town & County Planning
l.woodend@southlakeland.gov.uk
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