Urban Decay in Japan The City of the Future: A Fusion of Business, Residence, and Leisure Advanced Technology in Your Own Backyard Grass-Roots City Planning: The Needs of the Residents Revitalized Communities Breathe New Life into the City Reevaluating Life in the City High-Quality Housing Key

Efforts are now underway to revitalize Japan’s flagging municipalities, and although the vicious cycle of decay and stagnation that has so many of the world’s cities in its grip has affected Japan as well, the surest means of escape from these difficulties is a concentrated effort at urban renewal. No single approach to urban renewal guarantees success, but one element that all approaches share is the earnest desire of afflicted communities’ inhabitants to restore the charm and vitality that once graced their cities.

Urban Decay in Japan

In 1995, Fortune magazine published a list of the world’s ten most attractive cities for business, and it came as a shock to many Japanese to find Tokyo ranked in last place behind New York, Paris, and Hong Kong. Yet Tokyo’s problems typify those faced by most Japanese cities. Rapid growth of the postwar era, for example, had led to indiscriminate development and ad hoc city planning. As a result, many Tokyoites found themselves not only faced with long commutes on crowded mass transit systems, but also concerned over issues such as disaster planning and the environment. Lack of convenient access to Narita’s Tokyo International Airport was just one problem so bad that it received international attention. The bursting of Japan’s economic bubble brought to everyone’s attention new problems such as idle land in city centers and the hollowing-out of urban areas that led to the collapse of communities. The stagnation afflicting Japan’s cities also affected economic and industrial development. In 2001, the Japanese government established the Urban Renaissance Headquarters, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at its head. It undertook the promotion of forward-looking projects designed to facilitate urban renewal from a variety of perspectives, including environment, disaster prevention, and internationalization. Considerable effort was also made to develop a comprehensive policy to enable the effective development of land. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government expounded plans for molding Tokyo into an international city with world-leading charm and vitality, and announced its New City Planning Vision for Tokyo, which is intended to define basic policy on urban development. These were the beginnings of measures to create a unified metropolis capable of functioning as the nation’s capital. Other urban areas also initiated strenuous efforts in the promotion of comprehensive urban planning. Landscaping plan for a green terrace on the second story of a low-rise building. Hundreds of different kinds of plants give warmth to the scenery, including the seasonal flowering trees and the mosses that adorn the surface area.